Forging of Father
by Ice Cream Kid
Summary: My take on how Ben became Father.
1. Attempts at resistance

To them, there was no era before Pappy. It had been like this for as long as they could remember. Wake up, eat, work 'til they were sore and stiff, eat, sleep, repeat. The day shift began promptly at 6AM and ended at 10PM. There were three job functions. Hauling the bags of flour, churning the tapioca, and stoking the fire. Churning the tapioca and stoking the fire was dangerous, even deadly, in itself, but 'working the floor'- as in hauling the bags of flour across the factory up to the chute and dumping the flour into the chute, was not hazardous and those who worked the floor wore a ball-and-chain. The exceptions were if their spirits were so broken that they needed no extra deterrent from fleeing.

The entry age to work in the factory was 5 years old. Some were older when they started, some were younger when they started, some were at the age of 5. Before then...every single one of their memories drew a blank. It felt like they had begun existence in the factory.

Everyone regardless of being 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10, started on the floor, and those who were deemed to be competent enough were transferred to the giant tapioca bikes to churn the gigantic vats of mushy, thick tapioca, or the coal piles to keep the machinery powered. The coal piles were considered to be the best job, but that wasn't saying much, and none of the tapioca-churning kids had any energy left to brag about their slightly less bad lot to their lesser-ranked fellow workers.

The more cynical kids- or rather, the kids whose minds hadn't already turned into figurative mush from the mind-numbing labor, were aware of their situation that they were essentially slaves to the Evil King of the World. This included the seven-year old kid in the large black glasses and blue suspenders. He dragged the heavy sack of flour across the floor, past the large windows offering an equally bleak view of the outside, of the tall clock that glowed an evil green. The only thing that changed from day-to-day were the order of kids in front of him and behind him, because some fell behind whereas others plodded ahead and his clothes that got more frayed the longer he stayed here, and his ankles got more sore the longer the ball-and-chain stayed on.

But there was some respite. At 10PM, at the end of the day shift, they were left to their own devices. If the kids knew what was good for them, they would take that precious time to sleep in preparation for the next day. But sometimes the little kid with the black glasses skipped sleep to creep outside. Not that he was trying to run away, no, not at all, he'd never do that. But none of the other kids had the strength left to complain. Every single kid got two meals a day, the second meal was already metabolized and they were both tired and hungry, not in any shape to go anywhere. But somehow, Ben managed to spend thirty minutes or so outside the factory walls before creeping back to his room to sleep those few precious hours.

His older brother Monty, who was weighed down by a ball-and-chain on _both_ ankles, well he complained all the time...he'd always gripe that "It's not fair", and one day he'd "bust outta this dump", and he'd sabotage work: finding ways to cut through the bags of flour and toss them everywhere, making Pappy sore and hit him with his lightning.

Then Monty, all scratched-up and singed, complained some more. Ben listened to Monty's complaining patiently. He never joined Monty in his little rebellions, because Pappy hit him with his lightning even without rebelling. But lightning wasn't as bad as the _b-word_. Just thinking about the _b-word_ made him want to _vomit_. Because when Pappy punished him with the _b-word_ , he _did_ vomit. He vomited for a _week._ But Pappy was not-mean in some ways: he never hit any kids with his _hand_.

But one day, Monty was transferred to the tapioca-churning unit. Ben didn't have anyone to listen to anymore, and his mind was still active even though his body was tired and aching. He became so lonely that he couldn't even sleep. One night, he slipped outside for longer than usual, to the scrap yard to, well... _explore_ it. The polluted air outside wasn't any easier to breathe than the polluted air inside the factory, but during the night, he was able to satisfy his curiosity. Underneath the moon choked off by the clouds, Ben collected bits of trash from the trash heap and having a knack for building, he made a shell, a motor..not all during one night, but over many nights. When dawn broke, he hid his tiny creation underneath his hard bed in his unadorned, plain room, identical to all the other unadorned plain rooms of all the other kids- except Monty's- Pappy had barred Monty's door so Monty couldn't escape.

One day, Pappy's thunderous voice that shook Ben to the core of his being pulled him off the floor. He carefully dropped his sack of flour so his fellow workers wouldn't trip on it and so the flour wouldn't spill, got out of line, and sort-of ran against the heavy weight of his ball and chain to Pappy's office.

"Monty!" Ben gasped, out-of-breath. His clothes were not only frayed but singed by day-old lightning blast hits. Weird enough, his body never got burned by Pappy hitting him with the lightning, only scratched. Though he was fine at the moment, he saw Monty. Ben got panicked, realizing Monty was getting hurt this time, and more than usual.

"Ben, get outta the way!" his brother warned, singed and bruised and smelling of fresh lightning burns.

 **"QUIET, BOTH OF YOU!"**

Ben shuddered, while Monty glared and crossed his arms over his singed chest.

 **"BOYS, I HAVE BEEN WATCHING BOTH OF YOU. MONTY, YOU ARE A VALUABLE WORKER BUT I FIND YOUR ATTITUDE TO BE...DISAGREEABLE."**

Monty's upward stare remained hard and unyielding. **"AND AS FOR YOU, BENEDICT...YOU NEVER CEASE TO DISAPPOINT ME! YOUR INCOMPETENCE IS UNBELIEVABLE! TWO YEARS AND YOU'RE STILL GOOD FOR NOTHING BUT CARRYING FLOUR!"**

"I-I'm s-sorry, P-Pappy!" Ben cowered, and he crouched down so low that two somethings fell out of his shorts pocket.

 **"WHAT IS THAT?!"**

Grandfather's yellow gaze perceived the two objects on that had dropped on the floor. Monty's angry upward stare also shifted, suddenly drawn to the half-eaten ham sandwich on the floor.

"Th-this..or th-this one, Pappy?" squeaked Ben, visibly shaken that he had dropped these objects in front of Pappy.

Pappy hovered his long finger above the object that was emitting a frivolous noise.

 **"THIS ONE, BENEDICT!"**

"Uh-um...a r-robot..?" Ben picked up the whirring, rolling thing and held it up to him, almost in offering. "I m-made it..."

"Alright, Ben!" yelled Monty, energized despite his injuries. "You musta snuck out and gone down to the scrapyard! Way to stick it to the old man!"

Ben shook his head rapidly as Monty was heaping praise and encouragement on him, feeling the crushing weight of Pappy's yellow gaze on him.

"I w-wasn't trying to s-stick it to a-anyone..! I j-just w-wanted to m-make s-something th-that's I-like th-th factory machinery...like a l-little v-version o-of it.."

 **"WHAT?! WHAT INSUBORDINATION IS THIS?! YOU FIND CONDITIONS UNPLEASANT HERE, DO YOU?"**

What Ben didn't say was that he made the robot because working here made him feel like the robot. With no worth outside its programmed function. Or something to that effect. But Pappy understood what Ben was trying to say. And Ben scrambled to amends.

"N-no, I l-like it h-here, P-Pappy! I-I c-can get r-rid of it i-if you don't w-want m-me to have it, Pappy..!"

 **"IT'S TOO LATE, BENEDICT. I WAS ONLY GOING TO DO THIS TO MONTY, AS I CAN NO LONGER IGNORE HIS REBELLION AND THE USUAL METHODS ARE NOT ACHIEVING THE INTENDED RESULT.."** Pappy released sparks of lightning from his body demonstratively. Ben was crouching on the floor closest to a ball he could get, clamping his hands over his head, bracing himself to get hit by lightning like what usually happened like just about every day before. **"BUT I AM NOT AT ALL OPPOSED to DO THIS TO YOU!"**

"Just try it, you decrepit eleventy-billion year old sack of evil!" shouted Monty, chest out, hands tightly closed into fists, as if daring Pappy to hit him with lightning again.

"P-please, P-Pappy, d-don't hurt me anymore!" Ben squeaked, his unnaturally blue eyes peeking out between his fingers. This time Pappy had hit Monty but not him, so he wondered when it was his turn today. And this must have been it...

But to both their surprise, Pappy's lightning dissipated. This time, he coldly reached out with his creepy long fingers and touched the both of them on the forehead, blasting them with a blue beam that streaked out of his long fingers. The two kids screamed, and Ben fell over onto the floor, sprawled out and flailing. This was so much worse than all the times that he'd been hit by Pappy's lightning, especially 'cause he was only scratched by it and so it didn't hurt him as much though it scared him each and every time. Monty, already affected by the lightning burns, and who was glad that he was able to take the brunt of Pappy's lightning this time, so to spare Ben getting zapped again, his injuries brought him down on one of his knees. He threw every insult and mean word he knew at Pappy, and still stayed upright despite the massive amounts of energy beams pulsing into him, causing his body to convulse and it took all his energy to keep him from smacking uncontrollably against the floor.

 **"NOW BOYS, GET BACK TO WORK,"** Pappy commanded with a cold smile.

"Y-yes, P-Pappy," said Ben, his body still spasming from the beam, his eyes now a pale blue. He turned to work his way back to the bag of flour, the ball and chain rolling heavily behind him.

"Blow it out your robe!" Monty answered back with defiance and disrespect, bringing himself to stand again, his stance again solid and strong. "Hey Ben, ya forgot this ham sandwich!" Monty called out to Ben. His tone was upbeat, Pappy had used a lot of energy, he must have been tired out for now! Ben paused momentarily at 'ham sandwich', and then continued plodding on his way.

 **"WHAT?!"** roared Pappy. **"MY ENERGY PULSE OF ENHANCED COMPLIANCE ONLY WORKED ON BENEDICT. IT FIGURES,"** Pappy said with contempt.

"Ben! Aren't you gonna get this sandwich?" Monty deliberately showed indifference to Pappy's talking about the beam of doom but was listening, and frowned angrily. That beam must've made Ben even more despairing than before. "Guess I'll just save it for ya, then." Monty picked up the rest of the ham sandwich and put it in his pocket, as he started to trudge back, his progress slowed by the two ball-and-chains on his ankles.

 **"WELL, I MIGHT AS WELL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HIS SIMPERING SERVILITY ...BENEDICT, I HAVE ONE MORE TASK FOR YOU BEFORE RESUMING YOUR SHIFT. DESTROY YOUR RIDICULOUS ROBOT."**

"Y-yes Pappy," Ben turned around, plodded back towards where he left the robot, picked up his robot.

"No Ben, don't do it!" Monty, still hurting from the lightning and then that weird energy blast, reached out his lightning-burned arm, Ben crouched down on his shabby, worn-out shoes, and brought the robot down hard onto the floor repeatedly until it broke into a pile of screws and a destroyed motor.

Monty's anger dissipated into shock. His determined, generous eyebrows collapsed and his mouth dropped open. And then he really got mad.

"You monster...I'LL NEVER stop fighting you, Pappy! And one day I'll bring_you_down!" Monty swore, defiance in his dark blue eyes, Pappy zapped Ben's ball-and-chain, which fell off of him with a clank. Ben looked down at it dully with his unnaturally bright blue eyes, shuffled off the floor to resume hauling the flour, his frayed, scratched, recent but not fresh lightning-singed clothes rustling against his lean form as he moved listlessly. Monty's mouth dropped in sad shock, while Pappy sneered down at Monty. It was clear that the Evil King of the World was assured of his absolute control.


	2. Accomplice to a revolutionary

"Psst! Ben! Hey, wake up, Ben!"

Ben was asleep, or at least he was until he heard his brother's loud, rough, English-accented whisper. His unnaturally bright blue eyes slowly opened and perceived Monty. "Ben!" Monty called again from behind his barred door.

"Ugh, what is it, Monty?" asked Ben, blinking. "We need to work tomorrow.."

"Yeah, what else is new?" Monty angrily kicked the bars on his room door, that shook with a clanging echo. While he was in his room and on the tapioca bikes he wasn't restrained in any way.

"Don't be like that. Pappy gives us a place to stay. Without him we'd be fending for ourselves outside."

"Y'know, I am sick 'a your devotion to that tyrant! How can ya so calm about it anyway, it's like you're..." Monty's dark blue eyes widened with realization. "NOW I get it...that beam he shot into us...it's a brain-cleanin' beam!

Monty tilted a little, to see Ben's room better. He looked at the objects in the room, the bed, the bars on the window, the evil green sky that was like a river of poison. "Hey Ben, that was some robot ya made, too bad Pappy made ya smash it into a buhmillion pieces!"

"It was just a stupid robot..nothing important..." Ben said indifferently. "It..didn't matter..". Ben turned to the side and pulled the sheets up. Monty clenched his fist in small victory. At least he was sounding sad again and not that cold tone he had earlier. He felt around in his pocket, that was full of a soggy object. At first he was confused but then he remembered he had put the ham sandwich in his pocket earlier.

"Almost forgot, Ben, I was gonna give it back earlier.."

"Heyyy Monty, why did you take my saaaandwich..?!" Ben rolled around to the edge of the bed, flailing his arm frantically around.

"'Cause ya just left it back there in Pappy's office! Don't get your knickers in a twist, I was gonna give it back to you..here, here ya go." Monty held out the sandwhich between the bars on his door to Ben, but then looked surprised. "Wait, Ben, did you just..whine?"

"Uhh-of c-course I didn't!" protested Ben, hiding under the flimsy blanket. "I didn't whine, I'm not a baby!"

"I think you did..!" Monty said cheekily in a sing-song voice. "C'mon, Ben-spill it! How'd you bust out?"

Ben looked this way and that, then put on his glasses and his shoes, took off the blanket and left it on the bed, and went on the balls of his feet to the door so he could better speak to Monty without yelling and waking up the other workers.

"I didn't bust out'-I stepped out, just for a little air.." Ben whispered.

"Yeah, and to build a robot! What could the robot really do, Ben? Could it fire a laser that could explodify the tapioca factories to smithereens."

"D-don't talk like that! And n-no it was just a little ridculous robot. That's all it was.." Ben clasped his hands behind his back and made circles with the point of his shoe on the floor.

"That's Pappy talking and you know it, Ben! Listen, Ben, there's a tree outside. You can see it out of one of the factory windows! Every day I'm lookin' at that tree-it's callin' to me!"

"Uh yeah...what about it?"

"I wanna go see the tree, Ben. Just for a bit."

"Um, and why're you telling me this, Monty?" Ben asked with suspicion and worry.

"Cause you're gonna help me go see it," Monty's voice sounded like he was grinning.

"Oh nooo, we'll get in trouble..!" Ben reeled back, holding his head up in his hands in panic.

"Not unless Pappy doesn't find out. You were able to get out without 'im noticing, right?"

"Um...yeah..but..Pappy might notice this time...he might've put the key someplace different.."

"The key! You stole the key!" Monty exclaimed with excitement.

"I b-borrowed the key and p-put it back in the same place!"

"Think you can 'borrow' the key again?" Monty grinned conspiratorily in the darkness of the room.

"No, are you crazy?..! That'll undermine tapioca production!" Ben gave a utilitarian explanation.

"Who cares?!" Monty brushed it off. Monty's look of defiant joy turned back into frustration. It was clear that his brother was fighting the effect of the brain-cleaning beam, and just now it came back.

"I can't do thaaaat..!" Ben explained plaintively.

"Why not?" Monty asked, his hope increasing again since Ben was still fighting back.

"I might not get away with it this time..." Ben admitted.

"You wanna see the tree too, don't you, Ben?" Monty dropped his voice into one of gentle sympathy.

Ben gave a small smile in the darkness, but continued to convince himself that it was a bad idea.

"Wh-why would I want to see a tree-" defensive-"I mean I guess it would be neat to see the tree...wistful, then finally ,caving-" ok, ok, fine. I'll do it. We can go see the tree tonight.." Monty knew his brother well-no brainwashing energy-beam was going to stop his younger brother from doing the right thing, and Monty knew it was just a matter of wearing down his defenses until he said yes. "But I can't do it..without the sandwhich," Ben stated, grabbing the bars of Monty's door.

"Here ya go," Monty remembered and gave Ben the sandwhich. Ben started eating, slowly at first then more energetically. "Why d ya need the sandwich to steal-er-borrow the key?"

Ben finished eating the sandwhich, smiled toothily at his brother, crawled under his bed. There was some clattering, and Ben emerged with a set of nails from under the bed, thumbed through the nails, took out one, hid the rest, and started working at the lock on his door, trying to loosen the tumblers in the lock.

"I halved all my meals and saved the rest for after my shift.. So when everyone's sleeping..."

"You have just enough juice to ecape the factory every night..!" Monty stated in realization. He watched his brother was able to do something with ease, pride, and confidence and Monty was proud that Ben was proud about something...anything!

"I wasn't escaping, just stepped out for some air...and to build a robot.." Ben sighed. He stopped working at the tumbler.

"..I'm sorry 'bout your robot, Ben."

Ben sniffed and a tear dropped on the concrete floor.

"I'm sorry Pappy hit you extra-hard with his lightning instead of me this time."

"He's always hittin' you hardest Ben, and I can't stand it! I figured I'd share your pain for once, 'cause he usually just zaps me not that hard and stuff. It's weird though..remember that one time Pappy hit you so hard with his lightning it almost broke your leg, but it never burns ya!"

"Yeah, that is weird..why is that, Monty? He hurts me a lot..I should get burned but I don't..."

"We're both his kids, but-what if Pappy's powers only got passed down to you? 'Cause I don't have any special powers."

"P-powers? I don't have any powers either..I guess almost getting your bones broken by lightning but not getting burned is kind of a power...but what does sthat mean, Monty?"

"..Yeah, you're riight, that doesn't sound like much of a power. But whether you're normal, or you got powers, it doesn't mean ya have to be evil. Right, Ben?"

"Yeah, thanks Monty," Ben smiled as the lock clicked open and Ben opened his door and he headed out into the darkness of the factory floor.

Aside for having a knack for building things, Ben also had a knack for being very quiet. He pulled the nail that he kept in his pocket that he used to get out of his room and into Pappy's office. The nail didn't work on the factory door, however- he needed the key for that. He crept into Pappy's office. The giant form of Pappy was asleep on his chair. Ben took the big key from Pappy's desk, and then to the set of thousand-millions of keys. He crept through the aisles, looking for the M section of the keys. He found the key labelled 'Monty's room', laid the big key against the shelf, put the small key in his pocket because he needed two hands to carry the big key, and slowly padded out of Pappy's office closing the door behind him without making a sound. He then snuck by the night shift workers by staying in the shadowy part of the factory, went through the main door and to the rooms. He went down the hallway past the identical doors until he reached the barred door: Monty's room.

"Monty..!" Ben whispered. "Monty, I've got the key!"

But Monty was asleep. So Ben pushed the key under Monty's door and went back to his own room to collapse into bed to sleep.

The next day was an ordinary day in the tapioca factory. Ben fought off yawns as he hauled the tapioca-with more ease, because he wasn't restrained by the ball-and-chain anymore, and poured it into the chute that flowed down to be churned by the tapioca churning unit, and trudged back to get the next bag of flour along with the rest of the tapioca-hauling unit. But while he and the other kids were trudging across the factory floor, out of the corner of his pale blue eye he saw Monty, who, inspired by Ben, was eating a saved half of ham sandwich, had ditched his tapioca-churning bike which had stalled production-opening the factory door with the key. It gave way and Monty kicked the door wide open, bursting out into the polluted outside air with a wild grin on his face. Ben started to run after him.

It sure didn't look like Monty had any intention to just 'step out.'

He ran after him..surely to get him to come back inside the factory and continue work, right?

Or...did he secretly desire freedom too?


	3. The Kingdom Crumbles

All around him was loud noise and deafening sound. The sacks of flour exploded, the factory lit up as huge chunks of the wall were destroyed. The kids' muted groans of long suffering gave way to shouts of shock, then joyful shock, then joy. In the middle of it all was the kid in the red vest and the black sunglasses-and his followers, firing homemade lasers and rampaging throughout the heavily-damaged factory. Ben was smiling inside..perhaps wishing he had the courage to follow his brother-perhaps wishing he had the courage to be part of the rebellion. He had almost taken his hand-he almost took a different path, but...

Still, Ben didn't plan to help Grandfather suppress the rebellion. He stayed out of it altogether. But now it seemed like Monty and his followers were winning- but he hesitated when everyone else was pouring out of the opened giant doors at the front of the factory, yelling and screaming that they were now free..! Still, it couldn't hurt...

Ben took a few steps towards the doors, with the intention to leave for good this time. But he heard Pappy's commanding voice right outside the burning, broken-open walls...he was threatening Monty. The crackling of energy hit Ben's ears. And through the hole in the wall he saw the enormous shadow form of Pappy loom over Monty and his followers. Monty wore some crude armor with a 0 painted on it. He had sunglasses on that hid his eyes. Monty's followers lost their nerve. But Monty blasted a crude, thrown-together laser made from the same scrap heap that Ben had rummaged around for the past many nights to find parts to build his robot. The laser was really strong, he wondered if Monty built it himself or if it was one of his followers, but either way, they had some really strong technology and he watched as the light engulfed Pappy and he couldn't believe it-Pappy turned into a human-he wasn't a shadow anymore! Instead he was tall, broad, and had brown hair, sparse at his ears, and wearing a gray coat, suit, and tie. All around the factories vanished as if they had never existed, turning into houses and trees. The very floor beneath him turned into the floorboards of an ordinary modest wooden house with cool green walls and upholstery. Near where Monty and his followers were, a forest grew rapidly around them. The kids were exhausted, still scratched up and their clothes were still frayed and torn and ragged and covered with dust and those who were closest to the explosion were smoke-covered, and Monty's clothes were still burned from lightning and Ben's clothes still scratched from lightning, but Monty and his followers cheered at their victory, screaming at the top of their lungs, "KIDS NEXT DOOR, KIDS NEXT DOOR!" over and over again.

Ben was happy that they were all free, but he was worried about Pappy, who had been knocked out from the laser blast. Ben watched him from the door, not sure what to do.

Several hours later, Pappy awoke. "How did I get outside?" asked Pappy, standing in the front yard. Other adults kind of gave him weird looks-there was this weird man sleeping in the middle of his front yard. Little did the adults remember that only hours before, their kids were enslaved to a fearsome, tapioca-obsessed shadow creature. "Well, now where are those boys? MOnty! Benedict! Come inside for supper!" he called out sternly, but with none of the thunder his voice carried when he was a shadow.

"I'm here, Pappy..!" Ben waved from the front step.

"Why are you so filthy?" Pappy asked with disapproval.

"Um...I.." It stung Ben that Pappy didn't acknowledge the other things about his clothes, that they were frayed from hauling the bags of flour, that they were scratched from Pappy's lightning blasts.

"Don't bother explaining. Just get your brother," Ben stepped aside to let Pappy inside the house and then Ben hurried down the sidewalk towards the forest. He looked around. Where could Monty and the other kids have gone? He went towards the forest, because that's where they were last, but then remembered the tree. With so many trees around he got confused where the tree was. The first tree. He tried to picture the smog-filled bad world that existed just a few hours earlier. Everything looked so different now. It was greener, but not an evil green. Just green. It was kind of nice, kind of peaceful.

"BENEDICT! WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER?!" shouted Pappy, startling Ben. Pappy had lost his powers but not his disapproval. Ben hurried faster to find the tree, weaving between the big and fat trees and the tall and thin trees. He didn't go too deep into the forest-he didn't want to get lost, and he remembered the big fat tree wasn't surrounded by any other trees...it was just by itself. So Ben looked for a solitary tree. Solitary tree..

The tree looked very grand against the clear sky. Some birds flew by. Ben had already climbed-at least part of the tree, before, so he knew he could do it again. He huffed and puffed as he struggled up the tree, and then knocked timidly on the secret place, which opened. then came the part he hated-falling down the chute. He fell down the chute but instead of screaming, he shut his eyes tight so he didn't have to see the walls flying past him as he plummeted down the tree.

Ben landed on his face again as he hit the floor. But instead of the tree being creepy and dark, it was bright and lit up with a bicycle reflector. There was a kid pedalling it. One of the kids that hours later, was shovelling coal in the factory. The kid's body and clothes were still gray with coal. Ben saw he was one of the kids who were close by Monty when he fired the fateful laser blast and ended Grandfather's reign.

"Numbuh 0, Numbuh 0!" shouted the kid. "We've got an intruder!" He held two pieces of wood together that was connected by a nail. Ben shrank back.

"P-please, d-don't hit me..!" squeaked Ben.

"Aw, that's alright! That's just Ben!" said Monty, walking with a friendly, robust series of thuds into the main opening of the tree.

"Ben didn't help us fight Grandfather!" said what he guessed was Monty's right-hand kid, because he stayed close to Monty.

"He shouldn't be in the Treehouse of Coolness!"

"What're ya doin' here anyway, Ben?" asked Monty-not hostilely, just out of confusion.

"Uh..Pappy wants you to come to supper."

Monty's friendly demeanor quickly turnd hostile as his thick eyebrows knit.

"Well you can tell him forget it! After what he did to the kisd of the world,to us? He can eat all by 'imself! Monty crossed his arms stubbornly.

"O-okay, I'll tell him..." Ben answered, knowing that Pappy would get mad, but not wanting to upset Monty's right-hand kid either. Monty's teammate followed Ben with his eyes as he climbed the slide up the tree.

"You sure it's ok to let him go? What if he tells Grandfather how to get to our headquarters?"

"I trust Ben, Numnbuh .99. He's my brother."

"Yeah, I got a brother too. And he'd stab me in th' back for a penny. We just got our freedom, Numbuh 0! I don't want any_one taking it away!"

Monty nodded, acknowledging his teammate's concern with firm understanding. Still, he believed in Ben.


	4. Early Seventh Age

Monty downed some sausage rolls and some cream soda as he drew with a stubby piece of chalk on the tree wall. Numbuh .98 leaned against the wall,, Numbuh .97 and Numbuh .96 sat on the ground, while Numbuh .99 rode the bike that lit up the bottom floor of the treehouse.

"Alright are here-at th' Treehouse of Coolness," Numbuh 0 had drawn a rough map and marked the treehouse with a big, easy-to-read red x.

"Yeahhhh! Treehouse of Coolness!" shouted Numbuh .98, knocking excitedly on the earthen wall.

"We're aware of one adult-Grandfather-right across th' street here. Monty marked it with a green x.

"Boooo!" jeered Numbuh 0's entire team.

"And your brother," added Numbuh .99.

"Like I told you, Ben's not th' enemy!"

"Oh yeah? Where was he when every kid in th' tapioca factory was resistin' that tyrant then?" The others murmured in agreement.

"He was fightin' th' mind-cleanin' beam!" Numbuh 0 explained emphatically. "It didn't work on me but he got affected..but though he did I could see 'im fightin' its effects...so he stayed outta our way while we destroyed th' factory..." His team radiated auras of cold skepticism. "..He didn't sabotage us.." Numbuh 0 stuck to his belief, but his tone was more muted. Numbuh .99 abruptly braked on the bike, causing the bottom floor of the treehouse to go dark. The other KND members gathered didn't react, as they were used to scurrying around witbout lights.

"Yeah, didn't sabotage isn't th' same as provin' he's on our side, Monty."

Numbuh 0 looked sad, but he pressed on. He had defended Ben the best he could. But even he had to admit that Ben wasn't exactly overflowing with initiative and gumption even before getting hit with the Energy Pulse of Enhanced Whatever. He always had to give him a nudge. He always had to ok Ben's innate but inert naughtiness. As if giving him permission. That wouldn't work for a Kid Next Door. Kids Next Door didn't ask for permission.

"Now, we've only covered a one mile radius around th' Treehouse of Coolness. We can't assume, though we defeated Grandfather, that there aren't other villains that wouldn't wanna take over and return us kids t' slavification. So! Let's split up into two teams. We get as far as we can, chart th' area, and then meet back here by sundown. If y'lose your teammate, y'wait at one spot 'til he catches up. Ok?"

"Got it, Numbuh 0!" shouted Monty's team, a small group of boys from all over the commonwealth. They had gravitated to Monty and Monty had spotted their talents, and together they had formed the core resistance against Grandfather. Trust was a given. So much so that they even knew each other's real names.

"Everyone's 2x4 technology-" Monty flipped to the page in the sacred book of KND which explained how to build basi technology. "-in workin' order?"

"All wound up an' ready t' fire!" answered Numbuh .97. "Let's see those bloomin' adults mess with us!"

Everyone paired up how they wanted to, Numbuh .99 went with Numbuh .97, and .96 went with Numbuh .98. They left the heavy-duty tech like the sausage bombs-in a secure location where no adults could get to it-and instead took more rudimentary weapons: Numbuh .99 had a board that spun around a nail hinge and Numbuh .97 had a sack full of acorns he had collected and about twice as many rubber bands. Numbuh .96 had a bunch of sticks tied together at different parts of the branch, and Numbuh .98 had a big abandoned snail shell filled with mud. Monty had set aside his laser, which he had used to destroy the flour bags, and had picked up a sturdy wooden sword-with a secret compoartment he had hollowed out of it to put stuff that only he knew about.

The Kids Next Door cheered as they ran loudly yelling out of the treehouse.

It turned out, that as soon as soon as the other kids were freed, they had run off into the fields, the streets, and some went back to their homes. But wherever they went, all they could talk about was Numbuh 0, and talked and talked and talked about him to their parents or guardians-once Grandfather had been unpowerified, the kids remembered they had parents or caretakers, who were at home. The parents or foster parents just nodded about these ramblings about Number 0 without understanding. They didn't know it, but Grandfather's power had worked on them too: it had made them unaware of their childrens' disappearance into the tapioca factories. They had no idea where their children had been and what horrors they had endured. Some children were punished for not coming home until several years after they were supposed to. Some were disciplined. Others were just thrown out. Those were the first ones to approach Numbuh 0 and ask him to join.

Numbuh .95, .94, .93, .92, .91., and. 90. Then .89 from Cheddar joined too, all fired up from what he had witnessed at the epic battle against Grandfather. He had spent a few fidgety days in school before he turned truant and found one of the founding members and signed up on the paper pad.

"Our organization's sure growin'!" Numbuh 0 exclaimed with pride. "But we're boxin' ourselves in if we don't look for new recruits at Adult Central!"

"The adults have their own treehouse?" queried Numbuh .94, amazed and with an airy tone.

"Are you serious?" scoffed Numbuh 0. "I meant London, we'd be missing out on th' chance to recruit loads more Kids Next Door if we didn't look in the city!"

"Ohh, right, the city!" echoed Numbuh .94.

"There's tons 'a kids in the city though," remarked Numbuh .95. "And we're only-" he counted on his fingers. "One..two...three..four...12!"

"Good question..we'll cone up with somethin'!" Numbuh 0 rubbed his chin. "'Til then, we're off to Adult Central!"

So the recently-formed Seventh Age of Kids Next Door went to London. Most of the members were village kids, and so they kind of stared transfixed at all the city sights and sounds. They were also tired and wanted a break. So Numbuh 0 went with Numbuh .89.

"So why you call this Adult Central, Numbuh 0?"

"Lookit this place. Not a bloomin' tree in sight," replied Numbuh 0. "The buildins' aren't the right shape for playin' on. And lookit all these bars, lounges, night-club, all adult places!"

"Kid at 1300!" Numbuh .89 shouted.

"Alright, Numbuh .89!" Numbuh 0 excitedly took off in that direction.

"Can I interest ya gents in a paper?" asked a boy in clean shirt and trousers.

"Gents? We're kids, and so are you!"

"Maybe when I were 5, but I'm 8 goin' on 9 now! I'm practically a man!"

Numbuh 0 crossed his arms and "hrmphed". Numbuh .89 flipped a lolly the newsboy's way.

"The price is a whole quid, no substitutions!"

"What kinda kid are you, charging adult prices to kids?"

"The kind who has to work, that's who! Not that that evil shadow bloke was a picnic, but you didn't hear whinin' from me about bein' made to work!"

"But don't you think that's wrong, spendin' your best years like that?"

"Doesn't much matter what I think does it? It is how it is."

Numbuh .89 was reading the front page. Aloud. "Hey! How'd you filch one 'a my papers?"

"Breaking news: Mrs. Appleby's cat found..you're charging four quid for this rubbish?"

"There's just...not that much goin' on, alright?" retorted newsboy defensively.

"Why don't ya run a story on Grandfather?"

"Whatre ya goin' on about..unless..waitaminute, you're part of the radical kids that brought down the tapioca factories...but..why..oh no. You're not tryin' to recruit me into the Kids Next Shore!"

"It's Kids Next Door!" Numbuh .89 corrected. "That's exactly what we're trying to do!"

"We need someone to keep tabs on the news that affect kids...a newspaper by kids for kids about kids!"

"And if I refuse?"

"You'd be refusin' two quid per paper." Numbuh 0 winked, flipping the amount on his broad thumb. He was still dressed shabbily but the sight of money made newsboy disregard the fat persistent kid's slovenlyness.

"You got yourself a new Kids Next Door member! newsboy toased the armful of newspapers and shook Numbuh 0's hand.

Meanwhile Numbuh 0's team-Numbuhs .99, .98, .97, .96, and Numbuhs .95, .94, .93, and .92 were not currently taking a breather at Trafalgar Square, because a local kid-in new clothes-bumped into .95, who started to cry. At first the others didn't think it was a big deal. They were kids like them!

"Aww, gonna cry to mumsy?" taunted the local kid. Numbuh .95 sniffed and wailed. Numbuh 0's team stepped in. Numbuh .96 threw his snail shell with mud in it. It cracked all over gang leader's shirt. Gang leader got mad.

"Alright mates, time t' show 'em some London hospitality. Time you lot get back to Scarborough!" Gang leader motioned to his gang. The gang surrounded the kids with- it wasn't anything worthy of the street, but the nail board and bunches of acorns that they were getting hit with were at least making them annoyed.

"Scarborough? No one here's from that far north...ahhhh!" Numbuh .94 held his hands near his head to shield himself from the gangs' blows.

"I think they're tryin' to separate us..." he said fearfully, as he noticed Numbuh 0's team getting farther away.

"Run!" Numbuhs .93 and .92 yelled together, and pulled away from the gang. Numbuhs .94 and .95 followed, Numbuh .95 screaming in fear. Part of the gang followed, yelling hostilely as they shoved their way through the crowd of adults who did not see the crisis unfolding below them.

Numbuh .94 covered Numbuh .95's mouth and followed Numbuh .93 and .92 first one direction then the opposite, as they decided which route to take, all packed full of adults or too near to the gang for comfort.

"Lets try down those stairs!" Numbuh .92 called out, and the other KND clambered to keep up with Numbuh .92. Numbuh .92 took a flying leap over the turnstile. A constable whistle blew but before he could reach them the group had gotten over the turnstile and disappeared into the crowd.

They were almost to one of the trains when one of the gang members landed in front of them. The whistle wasn't blowing anymore, since the constable had been knocked out by the gang members. He was twice as big and he snorted like a bull, but was fully a human kid, just very mean. Numbuh .92 slid protectively to the front, but was also shaking too.

"Can't believe it..we got free from Grandfather..only to be pounded flat by a bunch of lugheads..?" Numbuh .94 asked in disbelief.

"Grandfather..?" repeated the gang member. "Oh..you're one 'a those freaks.."

"We only just saved kid-kind."

"You're high on somethin-"

"What's 'high'?"

"There's no shadow bloke! Everyone under 13 just hallucin...hallucin..."

"Hallucinated?"

"Shut up, no one asked you! everyone under 13 hallucinated!"

"You're stressed 'cause of wbat Grandfather did. We all are..that's why we joined the Kids Next Door."

"Lalalala, I don't wanna hear it, you're crazy! You're freaks! You need sense walloped into you!" gang member lunged, knocking over a red-haired adult with a designer bag. Numbuhs .94, .95, .92 and .93 scattered, running from gang member. Numbuh .92 saw the sadness in gang member's eyes. Of course, who would want to admit losing three years of their life to the tapioca factory?

But in front of the sadness there was rage and Numbuh .92 didn't try to reason, but went on running.

The whoosh of the train and the sound of it stopping. The doors slid open and adults poured out of the train, unobservant. There were a handful of kids. Those kids crowded around the gang member and brought him down like a giant herbivore.

"Whoa...thanks..!" said Numbuh .94, voice filled with gratitude and exhaustion.

"Waitwait!" One of the kids said. "Who are you?"

"Numbuh .95, .93, .92, and I'm .94, of the Kids Next Door..though we got saved, so it's kinda awkward. But we're new."

"Prove it!" demanded the kid with the conductor hat.

"Huh?"

"Prove you're Kids Next Door."

"Uhhh.."

"They're not really Kids Next Door," said the kid in the conductor hat, in disappointment. The train remained stopped. No one had gotten on.

"What're you on about?! We were all in the same factory, the one Grandfather oversaw most strictlike."

"And who's Grandfather? Like what's he look like?"

"He's at least 10 feet tall, is a shadow with yellow eyes that shoots lightning out of himself!.."

"You're..you really are Kids Next Door! Harry, I'm payin' their ride!" the kid with the conductor hat yelled with excitement. The adult conductor closed the doors and they were off.

"Why do so many kids don't believe what happened to us?" asked Numbuh .94 in one of the hard plush seats.

"I dunno, but I tell ya a lot of us did, and life's been hard ever since. We left school, went ridin' the trains, begging, filchin', ya know...all in search of the mythical Kids Next Door. To prove to ourselves we weren't crazy."

"Well we're real alright. And you're not crazy..except for having an adult drive you around. Sure we can trust him?"

"That's Harry, he owes me an' my mates a favor! And you can get anywhere by train. You meet a lot of other kids. Ones who also wonder about that fateful day..and the three years in between."

"Do they want to join the Kids Next Door?" smiled Numbuh .93.

"Only one way to find out!"

-'

Numbuh 0 and Numbuh .89 returned with newsboy, librarian's apprentice, and bake shop ex-employee, to find that Numbuh .92 through Numbuh .95 had with them the train riders plus a motlry assortment they had met on the way. His team had also returned, with no new members but ragged and victorious.

"Alright New Kids Next Door! Anyone without a previously designificated role, our mission's t go to that cluster 'a buildings over there and report how many adults there're there! We need t know how many potential enemies we're up against!"

Numbuh 0 speschifying in the middle of the square brought some stares, the curious gazes of accompanied kids, and the chiding looks of disappointment from adults. One actually came from the direction that the shades-wearing squat kid was pointing at.

"Uh, I live in that cluster 'u buildins over there, Numbuh 0!" said Numbuh .91, a boy in a cap and worn overalls that Numbuh 0 recognized, one of the former permanents on the factory floor. "Those're jus' muh parents."

"Do your parents hate kids?"

"They don' hate me," answered Numbuh .91. "They are askin questions though, like why muh clothes're worn out, complainin' they gotta go to th' second-hand store again. Do we tell 'em? 'Bout Grandfather?"

Numbuh 0 frowned.

"Numbuh .95, .94, .93, .92...did tell their parents 'bout Grandfather. They don't believe a word they're sayin'! Numbuh .93 and Numbuh .92 even got thrown on th' street!" Numbuh 0 shook with outrage.

"I bet my mum n dad'll believe me. They noticed muh clothes're worn down-it's worth a try-'cause really mate, I'd love t' see that maniac in th' nick," called out Numbuh .91 as he ran over to his shabby flat.

"Parents, who needs 'em!" Numbuh .93 spat.

"You're wastin your time, .91!" Numbuh .92 yelled.

"Lighten up, Numbuhs .92 and .93, not all adults are the enemy, that's th' point 'a this mossion, to identify hostile adults-" Numbuh .97 started, but Numbuh 0 motioned for him to stop. He let the new members vent. It was hard enough being enslaved by Grandfather. But to get betrayed by their parents musta been heartbreaking. It wasn't as bad for him and Ben because their parent had been evil. But for good parents to turn on their kids made him feel sick and angry.

They all waited for Numbuh .91 to come back. But the handful of kids in the middle of the street was attracting more of them.

"Are you with kids..or adults?" questioned Numbuh .99, holding up his nail board. The other members of Numbuh 0's team were equally wary.

"With criancas... kids!" one of the kids responded in accented English.

"Haven't seen you lot before." Numbuh .99 didn't drop his nail board. Numbuh 0 looked less on his guard, but he was observing.

"You have any idea how many factories of tapioca Grandfather made? You didn't think it was just in England, nao e?"

Even the core KND members gasped. They lowered their 2x4 tech. The newer members' mouths were agape with surprise.

"Not just.."

"In England?"

"Grandfather had said he transformed the entire world...but it's the first time I've met kids outside England. Welcome," Monty shook the other kids' hands, his demeanor full of earnestness and hospitality.

"Look there's a whole lot 'a them!" Numbuh .96 exclaimed, at the line of dirt-covered kids trailing behind the one with the accent.

"Whoa..." Numbuh .89 fell over on the pavement, overwhelmed.

"Do you wanna join the Kids Next Door?" asked Numbuh .96, in a challenging tone.

"Si!"

"Sim!"

"Ouai!"

"Sicher!"

"Uhh..whaddoes that mean?"

"It's a yes. And put me down as a member as well. This is why we came to England, where the rebellion be-gan.." the non-English looked over his shoulder at a passing adult. The other Kids Next Door shated the caution. "There should be a discreeter way to discus."

"Hm...what about..how every member has a numbuh...what if every location..got a letter?" piped up Numbuh .89. "Huh? Huh?"

"That's an idea, Numbuh .89!" acknowledged Numbuh 0. "From now on, this is Sector E.."

"What is the process to join as members?" asked the non-English kid.

"Numbuh .98!"

"Here's the registration log! Choose any codename that hasn't been taken yet! But they have to be numbers!"

The non-English kid translated for the others.

"Numero 234!"

"Nummer 7!"

"Numberrr 76!"

"Numero 10!"

The selection was a good deal more random, but Numbuh .98 respected all of the new members' choice of codenames, even Numer 1,234.5. It was a pretty long while after the newest batch of Kids Next Door joined, filling several new pages on the paper pad with Numbuhs when Numbuh .91 came running back with a glum look.

"Lemme guess, they didn't believe ya?" asked Numbuh 0, hands in his vest pockets.

"No mate, they did-" Numbuh .91 sniffed and wiped his nose on his ripped shirt sleeve. "They 'ugged me an' said they love me an' believe me, but they don' think th' constable will. And get th is mate-there ain't no evidence...no flour bags..."

The others started murmuring. "no tapioca vats." Protesting. "No ball-and-chains." All talking at once, until they realized what this meant, and they turned somber, both the core KND and the newly-inducted members.

Numbuh 0 broke the silence.

"Well that settles it! It's just us against th' adults, then!"

All day each Kids Next Door member scoured the neighborhood, town, and alleys, including the constubalary and jailhouse, which also had adults, and together, each member of the Kids Next Door came up with a running tally of all the adults in the surrounding area.

"That's eleventy-hundred adults in Sector E."

"Has anyone with the tallies for newly-formed Sectors F, S, P, and G arrived?" asked Numbuh 0.

"Sector F: 44 adultes. Sector G: 567 men, 654 women. Sector S and Sector P haven't arrived yet!" Numbuh 0 finished counting the combined tallies, marking the new number on the treehouse wall in yellow chalk. "Did any of ya in Sector E spot any villains among th' eleventy-hundred adults?"

The rest of the Kids Next Door answered "no", Numbuh .89 said "maybe", and they all started talking over each other, some shouting "he's not a villain, he just carries expired food", "how do we know who's a villain", "will they just tell us", "i want a whole box of crisps!" Some were working class, some were on the streets even before Grandfather, some were well-off. Some were totally dedicated to the mission of KND, others weren't sure about considering adults as potential villains, especially if they frequented the pastry shop often. "Ok ok, he's not a villain!"

"Alright, then we're safe for now!" yelled Numbuh 0 so the large crowd of kids could hear him. "Those who wanna stay here in th' Treehouse of Coolness can stay. Everyone else can go home with their mums and dads...but let me, Numbuh .99, .98, .97, or .96 know if any 'a th' adults, even if they are your parents, try anythin' funny, ok?"

"Got it, Numbuh 0!" they shouted over each other in disharmonious din. But as the ones going home piled out of the treehouse, he saw, to his surprise, three of the core team, Numbuh .99, .97 and Numbuh .96, were not with the ones who stayed behind. But he respected their choice and busied himself figuring out who did stay. One of the newer members, Numbuh .89 from Cheddar, was on the bike powering the bottom floor light. Numbuhs . 92 and .93 couldn't go home. .89, .91, and some of the newly-joined didn't want to go home, including the ones whose home was outside of Sector E.

"Well, it's just us, guys," Monty shrugged, popping the cap off another cream soda and handing it to the thirsty newcomers. Numbuhs .92 and .93 already had a cream soda and were in a corner off by themselves, still traumatized at being kicked out of their homes. Numbuh .89 was guzzling away, while Numbuh .95 was crying. Numberr 76 and Nummer 7 were in their own group, reading up on how to buil technology, whereas Numero 234 and Numero 10 were chatting in another group.

"It's better that way," said Numbuh .98, who had transcribed Numbuh 0's rebellion strategy, which he dictated to Numbuh .98 and Numbuh .98 wrote it on a piece of moldy cheese and smuggled it to Numbuh .99, .97, and .96-which was why he was in charge of registering new members. "The Treehouse of Coolness is big...but it ain't big enough for 50 kids!" he exclaimed, excited and overwhelmed by the amount of new Kids Next Door members.

"Oh wait, don't cry, it's gonna be ok!" Numbuh .89 tried to comfort the crying Numbuh .95.

"We've got to come up with a system, like a sign-in/out sheet, so we know which members are in the treehouse!" suggested Numbuh .98.

"Alright, ya can start that, Numbuh .98," said Numbuh 0, offering a cream soda to the non-English members. Numbuh .91 had made an effigy of Grandfather and was tackling it to the ground. Numbuh .98 saluted at Numbuh 0 and Numbuh 0 gave him a weird look.

"This ain't th' Armed Forces of the Crown, Numbuh .98! Salutin' is what the adults do."

Numbuh .98 took back the salute, but reluctant.

"Yeah, but already the Kids Next Door is gettin' bigger. Sooner or later, they'll have to know who's boss."

"And you're our leader!" added Numbuh .89 admiringly. "Without you there wouldn't be a new age of Kids Next Door! We'd still be Grandfather's slaves! And not just English-not just in Sector E either!"

"No salutin'," said Numbuh 0 strongly. "We want this to be egalitaric as possible." Numbuh 0 hit his fist into his palm. "We won't ever become oppressive tyrants like Grandfather."

Numbuh .98 was unconvinced.

"There isn't anything inherently oppressive about hierarifics," reasoned Numbuh .98. "We four were the first to rebel alongside you, it makes us, ya know, a little wiser than the new members. We know a little more, so we got to be the teachers, the guides." Numbuh 0 shook his head as he finished passing out the last cream sodas to the new members and began reviewing tomorrow's mission. He was easygoing on a lot of things, but remained stubborn on this point. There were only 50 kids in the Kids Next Door. Small enough to stay disorganized. Small enough to stay equal.


	5. Sector Z in Sector E

Fifty grew to 100. 100 grew to 200. 200 grew to 300. The log book of new Kids Next Door members was full and they had to grab an extra notepad to add more. The story goes that a kid in Year 3 sacrificed his arithmetic notebook to log-keeping, risking getting boxed on the ear by his parents at having to buy him a new notebook so early in the school year, with the previous notebook having gotten 'mysteriously lost'.

The about-to be third entry in this new notebook, which had a few scribbled-out equations from it being an ex-math notebook, was taking the solemn oath, in front of the entire membership of the Kids Next Door. Numbuh 0 had wasted no time in expanding on what room they already had, because by consensus though not everyone wanted to sleep at the treehouse, they did want to be present for meetings and induction ceremonies of new members. Since after they assessed the tree's dimensions they realized they couldn't hollow out the trrunk more without compromising the whole tree, they grabbed shovels, picks, built a batyering ram that knocked out dirt at both ends, and extended the bottom floor of the treehouse into a cavern running below the tree.

Now every Kids Next Door had room to stand, sit, lean, run, as they liked.

"Congrats!" announced Numbuh .98. "You're now a member of the Kids Next Door. Now choose a Numbuh! Just not .999 to 0, 0-900, or 100-200, 'cause those are taken!"

The new member had just finished taking the oath to protect kids without cause, without fail, except for breaks for sweets n' cider or cream soda or whatever sugar drink was on hand.

The new member turned in the direction of the log book-it was impossible to see his where he was looking because he had his cap pulled down over his eyes-' and lowered and raised his head, whispering the numbuhs above the blank spot where his numbuh would be entered, as well as the numbers preceding each entry. He mouthed 303, just because he was the 303rd member to join, but then waved his hands around indicating he had changed his mind. "Numbuh..." he spoke in a low, clear voice. "Numbuh 2!"

"Numbuh 2?" asked Numbuh .32, scratching his lice-ridden itchy head, giving the lice to Numbuh .25, Numbuh 176, and Numbuh 927. One member in the back row, wearing a helmet, noticed the lice and scrunched up his face. "Why not Numbuh 1? You're makin' it confusin'! Whose idea was it to start with decimals anyway? This is more confusin' than Numbuh 0's policy on hierarifics!" The itchy kid scratched his head more, and more lice fell out.

"EWWWWW!" shrieked the kids within reach of the raining lice.

"What is Numbuh 0's policy on hierarifics?" asked Numbuh 115, near the back row.

"It's top secret only to decimal-numbuhed kids," answered Numbuh .72.

"Oh, so you should know! What is it, what is it?"

"It's top-secret!"

"But whyyy?"

Numbuh .72 mumbled an "I dunno".

"Numbuh .32, you're disgusting!"

"Getitoff, getitoff!"

"I just like the numbuh 2!" answered Numbuh 2. Numbuh .98 approved and grabbed and held up Numbuh 2's arm. Numbuh 2 visibly squirmed. "Spoken like a true Kids Next Door member! Numbuhs don't need to make sense, makin' sense is for adults!"

The Kids Next Door booed and hissed. Numbuh 2 belatedly shook a fist, but the rest of the kids cheered anyways. Numbuh .98 wrote Numbuh 2 in the 303 slot.

"Yeah, I guess that's me, a real member of the Kids Next Door!"

"Alright then!" Numbuh 0 stepped out all serious and all-business on the raised platform where the ceremony was taking place. His intensity was intimidating, and Numbuhs .99, .98, .96, and .97 gave him some space. "Form up with any sector and they'll get ya all up t' speed!"

Numbuh 2 nodded, while he didn't step away to give Numbuh 0 more room. If anything it looked like he wanted to stand closer to Numbuh 0.

"Okay, Numbuh 0!" The newly-inducted Numbuh 2 waded through the crowd of happy, yelling kids, avoided the ones who were itching from lice, and the ones picking their nose and eating their boogers, and the ones giving each other pink bellies, and meandered round and round the packed, frenetic underground space that was the Treehouse of Coolness. There was hardly room to move-every free spot was taken by either wooden boards, dowels, wheels, bits of scrap metal, Styrofoam cups, rubber bands, ropes, crude pulleys, crude levers and crude platforms, acorns, apples, eggs, baskets, barrels, hand-operated drills, random materials, or by kids, laughing, yelling, playing leap-frog. There were several exits, several leading to smaller rooms further up the tree and the blue slide that led out altogether.

Numbuh 2 drifted towards one of the groups who were playing a heated game of hopscotch with another group. They immediately walled him off.

"Sorry, this is a Sector E sub-team."

"Sector..E?"

"Yeah, every location has a secret codename. Sector E's the biggest though so we got our own groups."

"But you didn't say what Sector E stands for..." started Numbuh 2.

"We got a regular dunce, don't we?" one of the kids stood over Numbuh 2. "Sector E stands for England, and since ya talk the wrong English, you're not from Sector E. So go find some other Sector to join!"

Numbuh 2 shuffled away from the Sector E kids. The more he looked at the other Kids Next Door, he did start to notice that they played and dove and ran around together, but when they were ready to get serious, including even when they were watching him officially join the Kids Next Door, they were in clusters, whose bonds were most likely forged long before he decided to join. And they were very locality-determined, too. The English-speakers were one group, the kids from the continent were in another group, and then there was another group of English-speakers but weren't from England, but that group was a lot smaller..in fact he counted only five of them.

Numbuh 2 walked up to the five were kind of keeping to themselves in the dark corner of the treehouse. In fact they looked the most cliquish of all. Numbuh 2's shoulders dropped a little. There was no way they would let him join...

He looked back to one of the continental Sectors, who were speaking in rapid Spanish. Seeking the more familiar of two unknowns, he turned basck towards the standoffish group of five, but walked a bit faster and more confidently: every once in a while one of them-who was wearing dark glasses, would run out and play with the other groups before coming back.

"Hiya, I'm Numbuh 2!" said Numbuh 2, a wiry kid that was medium height wearing heavy, dark clothes.

"Hey, Numbuh 2!" greeted a tall girl in a black turtleneck and a red and gray helmet that covered her ears, armed with a green umbrella. "We're known as Sector Z, from across the pond!"

"Oh, did the eggs turn into tadpoles yet?" Numbuh 2 asked cluelessly while he stared up at her shrinkingly.

"What? I can't hear you, it's a little loud in here right now!"

"Did the eggs turn into tadpoles yet?!"

The girl angled her helmeted head quizzically, and consulted with her friend standing near her, the small boy with blonde hair interpreted the newcomer's confused question.

"No Numbuh 2, Numbuh .3 means we're from America, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean."

"Oh, all the way from America!" exclaimed Numbuh 2 in surprise and reddened with embarassment. So much for making a good first impression... "What're you doing all the way over here?!" There was a lull in the chaotic noise and Numbuh 2 ended up yelling.

"Well, we've come to fight adult tyranny alongside the famous-or rather infamous, Numbuh 0! I'm Numbuh .1, by the way!" Numbuh .1 introduced himself right away to Numbuh 2, and reached up to shake his hand forcefully with his gloved hand. Numbuh 2 tensed slightly but then eased up. In .1's deep pockets he had two spinning tops. They looked like they hurt. "What Sector have you been assigned to?"

"Um, no, I'm not part of a Sector yet," answered Numbuh 2. Numbuh 0 had told him to find a sector, so Numbuh 2 was confused because this sector thought he had already found a sector, or rather, been assigned to one. So now he knew, that in America you couldn't choose your team. He had the instinct to back away, because if the sector rules were different over there, he figured he had a negative number chance they'd let him join them, but the small blonde kid was still shaking his hand so it'd not be nice to back away now...

While they were shaking hands, a taller boy-who Numbuh 2 also stared up at shrinkingly- in a gray helmet and wearing red boxing mitts grabbed Numbuh .1 by the shoulder and pulled him aside, lowering his voice, which, because of the loudness, was just talking at normal volume. Numbuh 2 tried to hear what they were saying.

"Don't tell him anything _unnecessary,_ Numbuh .1. Just going around, I hear a lot of loose lips in Sectors E, P, and F. And did you see that kid gave his teammates lice..?" The short girl with the messy brown hair and sunglasses laughed loudly. Numbuh .4 got fussy over the smallest things. Besides, a little lice didn't hurt anyone! She liked it here, the camaraderie, the closeness, how the entire organization was packed into one treehouse unlike back at home where everyone was isolated in their separate treehouses. She elbowed Numbuh .4 with a grin. She was actually the loudest one but it wasn't worth it yelling over all the other kids. Numbuh .1 read Numbuh .5's sentiment and said it in words.

"Oh come on, Numbuh .4, we're all Kids Next Door!" Numbuh .1 let go of Numbuh 2's hand and headed over to his taller teammates. His dark eyes were firm and bold. "Who can you trust if not the Kids Next Door? No adult, that's for sure!" he punched his gloved fist into his hand, which he opened, trying to convince Numbuh .4. "And besides, this kid doesn't have a Sector yet," the blonde kid said, in indignation. He turned to Numbuh 2 and reached up with his gloved hand and put it on his shoulder. Numbuh 2 was surprised at first but didn't tense up thos time. "Where're you from, Numbuh 2? New York? Vermont? Connecticut? Rhode Island?" Even though the way the smaller kid talked was very rough and tough, it was with a familiarity that made Numbuh 2 feel at ease.

Numbuh 2 started to shake his head at Numbuh .1's guesses, but he saw from under his cap that the small blonde kid wasn't going to believe that Numbuh 2 was actually from Great Britain.

"Connecticut," Numbuh 2 answered. He hoped that none of the other kids were from that American state. He didn't know anything about those places!

But, the five were satisfied at his answer.

"Well then welcome to the-"

"Wait! Wait wait wait! Normally-" the fat kid with shades and messy brown hair returned from another bout of playing ring-around-the-rosy with Sector F, out of breath, but still managing to cut off Numbuh .1, who folded his arms annoyedly. "-we'd send you to Sector CT But as we're the only Kids Next Door operatives from the States who could make the trip, that means you're stuck with us...that is..if we get a 5/5 vote in favor that is!" Numbuh .5 rolled over on her back, gasping for breath. "My vote is yea!"

"I don't get why we gotta put it to a vote, but of course he can join us!" said Numbuh .1 emphatically.

"Though we're fine enough as it is, it would be wrong to leave an operative without a sector. Ok!" The kid with the umbrella was the most cliquish, but honest. Numbuh 2 was kind of nervous about her. She kind of read as the cool one, and not cool as in ooh wow neat! but as in pragmatic.

"Hmmmmmm...ok, why not?" the kid with the helmet and boxing gloves finally agreed. "He doesn't have lice, and seems like he could keep a secret, and he's not in kindergarten. What grade are you in?"

Numbuh 2 panicked. He had been in kindergarten when Grandfather took over the world, but the next school season had already started-he was missing classes but he somehow felt not bad about it, so technically he was in year 2.

"Um..I'm seven going on eight," Numbuh 2 answered, bracing hinself if the five found that an unsatifactory answer.

"7 going on 8...you're a second grader?!" the boxing glove kid's eyes bugged out. "You're like, almost as tall as me!" Numbuh .4 exclaimed. "I'm 9."

Numbuh 2 committed that phrase to memory, 'second grader' he mouthed into his coat over and over.

"I'm like you, I have 7 years!" Numbuh .5 said proudly.

"10 years."

"Numbuh .2 makes all of us look like ants!" Numbuh .4 commented. Numbuh .2, who Numbuh 2 stared up at the most shrinkingly of all, was frowning. So was Numbuh .3.

"Numbuh .3, tell him how old you are!"

"...Sorry, I don't want to. He just joined us. It's nothing personal." Numbuh .3 turned her back. Numbuh 2 noticed that her reason for frowning was different for Numbuh .2's. Thiugh he wonfered what it was, he wasn't about to intrude on what she considered private and a source of anxiety.

"Ok, then...where were we? Aaaa, the vote! Numbuh .2!" called out Numbuh .5.

"Numbuh .4 was right to be a little paranoid," answered the very tall boy in his very soft, light voice. Only some of what he said could be heard over the raucous noise of the other kids as they crashed into walls and threw sticks and mud at each other. He polished his pool cue and pushed his brown hair out of his green eyes. "Some kids lie...about big stuff, about where they're from or what their name is." The very tall boy towered over him, as if reading him with his big green eyes. "But this one's... alright," smiled Numbuh .2."

"That makes 5 votes..Numbuh 2, you're now in Sector Z!" Numbuh .5 pulled out maracas and banged them on a pair of nearby drums.

Numbuh .2 went right to work.

"Have you built any 2x4 technology before?"

"Sorry?" Numbuh 2 managed, despite his panicked sweating.

"Have you built any 2x4 technology before!" Numbuh .2 raised his voice, figuring it was the sound of kids trying to balance on oversize rubber balls and falling on each other and onto the floor that was preventing Numbuh 2 from hearing him.

"I can build robots! Does that count?!" asked Numbuh 2 hopefully.

"Depends!" Numbuh .2 had the stern air of a master of his craft. "Can you build a robot with only the things in this treehouse?" challenged the very tall boy in the red sweater.

"In this what?" This time it was the noise. One of the wooden boards snapped. Some were scream-crying, where is starts as a cry but it increases in pitch and volume until it becones a shriek. Other kids were yelling with their hands clamped over their ears.

"Say again?"

A glass bottle rolled across the floor. Another operative was balancing on the bottle and crashed into another operative, sending the both of them crashing to the floor.

"I'd need a motor!" Numbuh 2 looked around the crowd of darting, rolling, screaming kids. Sure, they would eventually go back to their preferred groups, their affinities declared and their bonds forged-some of the bigger kids already had, as they were in corners planning their mission. But the ones staying in the indistinguishable crowd were the ones having unabashed fun. Numbuh 2 shook his head.

"Yeah sure, we can get a motor, but can you build the rest of it with just wood and springs?!"

Numbuh 2 took a walk around the space at the materials allotted, dodging a flurry of eggs that landed on another operative, who then got yelled at by another operative for wasting ammo, and then nodded.

"Yeah, I think I could..!"

Numbuh 2 got to work, and Numbuh .5, .2, .1., .4., and .3 watched him. In a very short time, Numbuh 2 built a crude wooden robot that whizzed deftly around the treehouse floor. It wasn't long until one of the other operatives stepped on it, crushing it to bits.

"Whoops!" said an operative in a neon green jumper and huge glasses flippantly, crashing into Numbuh .1, before running off into the wall. "Owie!"

"Hey!" yelled Numbuh .1. "Watch where you're klutzing around, Numbuh 244!"

"It's okay!" said Numbuh 2. "I can build another one! I can build a lot of 'em!" Numbuh 2 declared, feeling encouraged.

"What're we gonna do with all those robots, though?! What he really should build is a P-shooter!" grinned Numbuh .5, bunching up her fists with enthusiasm, leaning her round, androgynous, sunglasses-wearing self confidently against a barrel filled with cherry soda. She poured herself a cup from the tap and gulped the sugar drink down, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"A peashooter?!" asked Numbuh 2, scratching the cap on his head. "How's blowing on a tube to shoot peas highly advanced 2x4 technology?!"

"Ay, not a peashooter, genius!" laughed Numbuh .5. "A p-shooter. 2x4 tech that launches a prickly...porcupine!"

"Oh, p-shooter..I get it, hahaha!" the thin boy in the cap and puffy coat laughed, the kind of laugh indicating that he hadn't really gotten what was funny about it. "I can't imagine how that'd work!"

"I drew up a rough design!" Numbuh .2 unrolled a rolled-up piece of paper he had tucked in his sweater. "I'm sure between the two of us we'll be able to build it by nightfall."

"Wait, why do we need it by nightfall?!" Numbuh 2 asked, half the reason he was loud was because of the noise and the other reason being panic again. And this time he couldn't keep his voice calm and it got a little higher but no one noticed, it seemed.

"Since the fall of Grandfather it's been pretty quiet in Sector E, Numbuh 0 told us," explained Numbuh .2. "Neutral adult activity only. Grandfather really was the reigning evil adult in this sector!" Numbuh .2 stated with surprise.

"If there _are_ Evil Adults in Sector E, they're under deep, deep cover!" noted Numbuh .4. "I don't know much about adult psychology, but my guess is that they're waiting for an evil adult as powerful as Grandfather!" Numbuh .4 mimed Grandfather by opening and closing his boxing gloves like evil claws. At the mention of Grandfather, some of the smaller kids stopped playing, and they went to the corner to cry.

"But, we've got plenty of enemies from back home in Sector Z!" said Numbuh .3, checking the spring of her umbrella. "And they'll swim the Atlantic Ocean to get to us!" She pointed in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean with her green umbrella.

"But they'll probably come by boat or plane. And that means they'll be in Sector E _tonight,"_ Numbuh .2 frowned, again pushing the hair out of his green eyes. His tone was somber, calmly urgent.

"What?!"

"I said, that means they'll be in Sector E tonight!" he repeated, starting to show exasperation with the rest of the Kids Next Door...there must be a way to separate playtime from missiontime. Of course, Numbuh .5 enjoyed this madness.

The short blonde boy was undeterred.

"I say let 'em come to us! Let 'em work for it!" Numbuh .1 checked the spin on his set of spinning tops. They sparked with energy that gave them a little kick. "Numbuhs .2 and 2, meet us in front of Grandfather's house. I want him to see us kicking the evil adults' butts from his window!"

"He doesn't remember, remember?!" Numbuh .5 stuck her tongue out. "Not after Numbuh 0 destroyibied his powers!"

"That's why Sector E's relatively _quiet_ now!" reminded Numbuh .4.

"Yeah, but still! It's poetic justice, ya know?!" The other members of Sector Z nodded soberly in agreement with Numbuh .1 as they checked their equipment like the marbles in their ammo belts and the sticks of bubble gum, candy, and other sugar rations in their pockets. They all had their signature weapons, but it never hurt to have emergency weapons and of course, food.

"Well, it's just you and me, Numbuh 2," nodded Numbuh .2, quietly and efficiently gathering the unfinished materials. It had quieted down significantly as the other operatives had finished playing and trickled out of the Treehouse of Coolness to their assignments, determined by consensus of each small group. They could actually talk without raising their voices now. "See the spring here? I managed to make one with a lot of coils, but it's not enough power. The porcupine won't travel very far and you can only operate the p-shooter at a close range."

Numbuh 2 picked up the unfinished weapon, ran his hidden eyes over it, and put it back down.

"Well that's simple. You need a spring compressor." Numbuh 2 immediately started to build a spring compressor. Numbuh .2 looked on and whistled with awe. With their combined technical strength they completed the p-shooter, and Numbuh .2 picked up the porcupine as they climbed the blue slide and headed out into the cool misty air to the designated meeting place.

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	6. Detour

The Book of KND contained instructions for building basic 2x4 technology, the bare minimum equipment a kid would need to fight adult tyranny. But the manual was written a long long looong time ago, and so the early Seventh Age of the Kids Next Door were following the instructions set out long before they were born but also building on the basics outlined in the Book of KND to make something totally new and super-rad, with widely available materials like rubber bands, Styrofoam cups, sticks, and chewing gum. The Seventh Age innovated new ways and added metal taken from pencils, bottlecaps, plastic from disassembled toy cars, wood from broken-up rocking horses, and as well as finding different uses for unaltered objects and making crude makeshift coils, springs, antannae, timers for sausage bombs and even a kid-made, primitive laser. But, as with anything new and untested, there were bound to be some hiccups, especially with a combined, collaborative build that they had completed in only hours.

Sure, the thin kid with hidden eyes who had taken on the designation Numbuh 2 had easily built a robot out of the crude materials on hand in the Treehouse of Coolness, but he soon found out even though they found all the materials or parts of materials in the collective KND scrap pile and were able to use them to build the tech, he found out that his and Numbuh .2's combined parts of the p-shooter that they were making didn't mesh as well as they thought they would: the bolt-which had been salvaged from garbage cans, recycling bins, or even dump sites- he had fastened to the spring compressor that was part of the launcher that was attached to the pouch that was holding the p in their p-shooter popped loose, and both he and the much taller kid in the red sweater, Numbuh .2, were running after the skittish rodent.

"There it is, it went under that shrub!" Numbuh .2 was huffing lightly, and pulled the branches away from each other and tried squeezing his longish head into the dark brush. "Yeowch!" he exclaimed as a thorn jabbed him under a green eye. "Nope, nope, that's not gonna work. Hey! You alright back there, Numbuh 2?" he called loudly, which made his voice higher.

Numbuh 2 was way back in the grassy field, alternating running and walking in short bursts, stopping to crouch in the grass and look at the ground. His cap, loose around his head, slipped off and he quickly pushed it back on. His wavy hair had a little tuft sticking out the back, and it curled under itself in the front, complicatedly. It was brown, a shade browner than Numbuh .2's fluffy light brown hair the fringe of which stuck out confidently and carelessly on his head. Numbuh 2's already-not-completely-ruly-hair got wild and agitated by the breeze that swept a few flower seeds into the hazy dark sky. A few crickets were chirping, which sounded deafeningly loud..For three years all of the kids had heard little else but near-deafening machinery that they were operating, or for the ones not trusted to operate the machines, were just surrounded by, and Grandfather's demands and reprimands. But he had gotten so used to the factory sounds that crickets chirping-sounds he had heard when he was 3 or 4, before all the world's kids wrre sent to work in the tapioca factories, was by now an unfamiliar noise, a scary noise.

"Y...yeah..." Numbuh 2 called out in a scattered gasp, looking all around as the nighttime noises fully registered in his brain. Frogs croaking, hidden furry animals..or scaly animals..in the long grass. An owl somewhere nearby. He was transfixed with fascination and fear of the smaller creatures that maybe had stayed despite the air and water pollution, or might have run off and hidden somewhere, but either way, they had claimed the grassy field.

"I can't...fit..Hold on.." Numbuh .2 carefully prodded the branches and ground with his billiards stick. He shook his head, drew out the stick, and flipped it vertically, sighing in frustration. He then looked back at Numbuh 2, who by this time, as he adjusted to the bedlam of nighttime noise and it receded into the background of his brain, had finally crossed the field and was getting closer to the shrub.

"It's..my fault," whimpered Numbuh 2. "My design was flawed, I didn't account for the angle or the bolt size..."

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself, 2 x 4 technology's always a work-in-progress. I didn't take your design into account either." Numbuh .2 smiled in the dark. Numbuh 2 half-sniffed and kind of smiled back. "But, you're gonna have to go in there, I'm too big and this-" he patted his billiards stick. "only reaches so far. Gotta remind myself to make it extendable when we get back to the treehouse."

"M-me?" gulped Numbuh 2. Still, without waiting to be given the go-ahead he resigned himself to his task and flopped over on the ground, inching his way into the dark, dark brush. Rustling and snapping as he crawled his way through, freezing whenever there was a particularly loud snap of branches or whenever he was poked by the thorns. "Oww.."

"You're doing great!" Numbuh .2 encouraged. Sweaty and breath short and shallow, the smaller kid gathered up some resolve and continued to crawl through the shrub, feeling his way through the branches, leaves, thorns, and an occasional berry. He wondered if he could eat them, but then thought maybe they were poison or something. Still, he picked some berries and placed them in his pants pocket. He went deeper into the mass of dark vegetation. There was no respite from the sensation of being entirely enclosed by the shrub-every time it seemed like he was going to come out on the other side he felt like he was just getting farther stuck in the labyrinth, a labyrinth of darkness that he felt at any moment would swallow him up...

As he crawled he lifted one hand and then a foot and then a hand and another foot, getting scratched up each time he moved. He was glad he was wearing slacks instead of shorts and a coat instead of just a shirt, but the branches snagged on his socks that were showing because the hem of his pants was rolled up a little and the branch scratched his ankle some. He winced and squeaked but kept moving.

His hand didn't hit ground this time but he felt lots of pricks in his hand. He jerked away immediately, screaming this time, a high wail.

"Hey Numbuh 2! What's going on!"

"I..found the 'p.'..." Numbuh 2 answered in his shrill, strained high voice-which wasn't all that high usually, but got really high in times of stress, like now.

Numbuh .2 shined a neon bright flashlight on the p-shooter, onto which the porcupine was newly secured. It was eating the berries Numbuh 2 had grabbed from off the shrub, its nose in Numbuh 2's pocket, and was content enough. Numbuh 2 was simultaneously scrunched up in pain, fidgeting with the porcupine's eating out of his pocket, and shivering in embarassment that he had screamed.

But Numbuh .2 didn't make a single comment about his high voice, and bandaged Numbuh 2's hand Numbuh 2 looked surprised.

"Huh? Why do you look so surprised, like I was going to beat you up or something?" Numbuh .2 questioned.

"Um..well..I thought..uh..oh.." now he was listening to Numbuh .2's voice. It was actually pretty high also. Maybe not as high as his voice could go, but still pretty high. "Uh, nevermind, I guess? But thanks..." Numbuh 2 felt better..and it seemed like the much taller boy wasn't even judgmenting him at all about his voice, but was just concerned that he had gotten hurt..! He stopped shuddering and gave a silly smile.

"Uh yeah, sure," Numbuh .2 replied, confused by the other kid's nervousness.

"It's nothing..now let's see why it didn't hold together..."

Numbuh 2, hand wrapped with multi-colored bandages that Numbuh .2 kept in his pants pocket, re-fastened the launcher to the pouch., this time noting the size of the bolt and making sure he put in the bolt at a better angle. "The bolt I used is smaller..."

"It's too late to go back and get a bolt that fits, though.." Numbuh .2. advised.

"Maybe I can find a workaround.." Tongue sticking up from his upper lip, the smaller kid adjusted the spring he had added to the launcher so as to not crowd the launcher, which was Numbuh .2's part of the device and changed the angle of the bolt so it was in tight, that both parts of the device they had built went together. Once completed again, he shook the device.

"Whoa, go easy on our friend here!" Numbuh .2 held out his hands. "You don't want him to get dizzy mid-flight!"

"Sorry, just testing it.." the smaller kid answered, with his cap hiding his eyes, snuck a dirty look at the porcupine, who eyed him mischievously. "It should work fine now."

"Pretty decent improvizing..." Numbuh .2 declared. Numbuh 2's self-esteem rose slightly, and he stopped his drooping posture somewhat. "Alright, let's get to Grandfather's house," Numbuh .2 switched off the flashlight, took the p-shooter from his teammate and took off down the street with renewed urgency. With as much time as they lost, Numbuh .2 realized the rest of Sector Z might already be engaging their enemies. Numbuh .2 showed his anticipation, not with loud hollering and whooping, but with a light, almost bouncy tread, which looked funny on such a tall kid. Numbuh 2 felt like he was learning something new about Numbuh .2, other than that he was nice and found a use for his building skill and even didn't mind his high nasal voice and Numbuh .2's voice was high too, he just hadn't listened that closely to it before, he was also finding out by watching him bounce full of energy towards danger that Numbuh .2 took being in the Kids Next Door very seriously like the others, but also seemed to find it..fun? As fun was a concept alien to Numbuh 2, he was kind of curious and intrigued and so followed timidly after him trying to match his enthusiasm, even though he was scared to follow a kid like himself, who was so confident but didn't heed what must be scary ahead...but he was also more scared of staying behind in the dark, the dark that he feel could swallow him up at any moment.


	7. Getting to know you

The house light meant to illuminate Grandfather's porch was off, and Numbuhs .2 and 2 crossed the street and into Grandfather's small front yard. Numbuh .1 was complaining in the dark. Numbuh 2 couldn't hear any crickets here. Numbuh .1's voice was less stressy to him. even though it did sound like he wanted to punch something all the time, the way he talked like all of his words were important and like, tough.

"Wouldn't you know it, the moment Grandfather forgets he's the Evil King of the World he stays out late! You think someone that old would be in bed by 8:00!" Numbuh .1 heard running and looked up and across the street, clutching his spinning tops. But his guardedness turned into exasperatedness as he made out his teammate's and the new kid's shapes in the darkness. "Where the heck've you been?!" The new kid froze in his tracks like a gerbil or something. Numbuh .2 kept walking forward, with measured ease but a tone that wasn't without apology.

"We almost lost the p-shooter, but it's all good now," explained Numbuh .2. patting the porcupine lightly.

"Light!" motioned Numbuh .1. Numbuh 2 noticed that Numbuh .1 didn't bother to answer him. Numbuh 2 was starting to get the sense that Numbuh .1 was in charge, and quickly ran to catch up with Numbuh .2. The neon flashlight snapped on, revealing Numbuh .1, Numbuh .2, the p-shooter and the billiard stick, and also the three other Sector Z kids bustling around the front yard, the front yard itself and the surrounding street and houses nearest to Grandfather's house, as well as three intimidating and very large mostly-wooden machines parked in the middle of the yard. Numbuh 2 hadn't seen the others' shapes in the darkness-they were a little farther off and his sight wasn't that great. He saw even less with the cap hiding his eyes. But now with the much taller kid's flashlight on, he stopped running, so he wouldn't crash into Numbuh .1. He held out his palms with apology and started to reel back, but then noticed he was looking down at the shorter kid, so he didn't step way back.

"Whoa...is that more 2x4 technology, but more big?" asked Numbuh 2, holding his arms out down and away from his sides and his hands open in amazement. Numbuh .1 was making signals of uncomfortableness and leaned in so the new kid would get the hint to move. Upon seeing that Numbuh .1 wanted to get somewhers, Numbuh 2 stepped aside, getting startled as he bumped into one of the other Sector Z kids. who was equally startled and not mad, but not happy either, to get bumped into by the new kid.

This one was a little taller than him and wore a green armor and a helmet with a yellow Z badge-who he had met before but he was just now starting to commit the other kids to memory and he didn't know everyone's numbuhs- -but he remembered this was the one who didn't really trust him, and didn't trust the other kids too, because one kid had given another lice.

Numbuh .4 eyed the slightly smaller kid in an unsure way, but relaxed more at the new kid's asking about his creation. Numbuh .4 patted and nodded at the first machine.

"Yup, these are our defense systems-" he explained, hesitant to elaborate. But like Numbuh .1 said, he was still a Kids Next Door. Numbuh .4 figured that it was safe to assume that the new kid wasn't hiding lice or any other weapons. "We normally use them against adults attacking our treehouse." He looked over at the new kid. He couldn't see his eyes, but he looked attentive and that made him more sure. "But on big missions like this where we know the adults are attacking all together we don't leave home without them."

Numbuh 2 was starting to identify their voices too. Numbuh .4's voice was also high and nasal, more than Numbuh .2's even. Wimpy, like his own voice, somewhat congested and very squeaky.

"You all built all of them?" Numbuh 2 wound around the device that was bigger and wider than him by several feet, roughly determining what it was by glancing at its component parts."Oh, it's like a seesaw," he remarked quietly. He did remember what a seesaw looked like, way back before Grandfather had transformed the world. There was one in the park where the bigger kids had played before being forced into the tapioca factories.

He was speaking so quietly Numbuh .4 didn't catch what he said.

"Nuh-uh, this one's _my_ baby," Numbuh .4 hugged the seesaw-looking contraption lovingly. "Here, let me show you how it works..what's your Numbuh again?,"

"2."

"Yeah, that's it! Numbuh 2!" He was more cool with the new kid now and took Numbuh .2 around the shoulder and started to pull him by the hand around to the front of his large 2x4 tech. Numbuh .4 could feel tension in the new kid's hand, and eased his hold so it was more gentle. He seemed to sense that Numbuh 2 was intimidated by other kids getting even a little rough. He knew that it wasn't his dark brown and tan-ish color, because as soon as he eased up, Numbuh 2 relaxed and let Numbuh .4 pull him along. And besides, if that light kid had a problem with his hue, he'd be one to talk, 'cause Numbuh 2 was pretty pigmented for a white kid-he looked positively brown next to Numbuh .3, .1, and .2.

And the new kid hadn't reacted to his color like some other kids and adults had done in his hometown...

But what the new kid had reacted to was his taller size, because the new kid had gazed up at him like he was a giant, and had when they all first met kept distance from the other taller Sector Z members too, whereas he had interacted with Numbuh .1, who was shorter. The new kid even had let Numbuh .1 shake his hand though he had tensed up, and the next time when Numbuh .1 touched the new kid's shoulder he stopped being nervous. But Numbuh .4, who was observant of things that could mess up team compatibility, had for a moment glimpsed Numbuh 2 looking up very wide-eyed-but didn't see his eyes for long- at the giantest kid when they all first met, which was not even a few hours ago. And then Numbuh .5 was the shortest of all of them, but she didn't tap or grab the new kid, so so far it looked like Numbuh 2 was neutral so far about her.

But it looks like he was getting more scared of Numbuh .1, and he was pretty sure he knew why-he had seen the other kid stand stock still like a mouse upon hearing Numbuh .1's big tough voice, which was funny coming out of a kid that short. As for him, he wasn't self-conscious about his voice even though he got bullied for it. He got bullied more for being black than his squeaky voice. But he wasn't in school so it was all fine right now.

Since Numbuh .4 realized that such an easily scared kid might run off in the middle of the mission, Numbuh .4 went out of his way to be familiar with the new kid while recognizing his sensitivities. Numbuh .4 figured Numbuh 2 was a really little kid, but looked like an older kid, kind of like how he was littler but was bigger and so looked older. Maybe that's why he was soft with him. Right now the new kid was alternating looking at him and the device, and he was calm but he still looked wide-eyed up at him, the giant. "You jump on this end and land on the X..." When the new kid saw that he was lookimg at his eyes he quickly looked down. "It's a lever, see?" Numbuh 2 looked up but this time while closing his eyes, at Numbuh .4-not way up, but still up. Numbuh 2 noticed that the ball on the other end of the seesaw-looking thing was shiny and gray, and was intrigued at the slightly taller, but looked giant to him kid who looked like he was from Africa repurposing of what must have once been wrapped frankfurters and hamburgers, what he could tell by the smell..

Numbuh .4 could see that the new kid was really set on hiding his eyes, and looked down instead of forward.

Numbuh 2 then looked up at Numbuh .4 again. Sure, the other kid was giant, but he was at ease because he could see the kindness in Numbuh .4's face. He also had some technical knowledge, not as much as Numbuh .2 had, but Numbuh .2 was more aloof, when working on the P-shooter it was like two analytical and distant minds interacting. Numbuh .2 was interesting because he was a lot of things at once: he was scary, and supergihugic, and he liked analyzing and science, but he liked fun, too, and found being in the Kids Next Door and battling adults fun. Numbuh .4. though a giant, was more understanding and seemed to sense that he didn't like when other kids were too aggressive even in a friendly way. He was trying to not let Numbuh .4 see his eyes though. The only thing he didn't like about Numbuh .4 was that he kept trying to see his eyes. But he had given up for now.

Numbuh .4 was good at observing, and good at protecting himself from being observed, so Numbuh 2 didn't have any indication of Numbuh .4's personal struggles through his body language or demeanor. But though Numbuh .4 didn't let it on, the moment they met Numbuh 2 had already figured Numbuh .4 might have had problems, since Numbuh .4 looked like he was from Africa and Sector Z's members were from America. He had heard some pretty scary things about that country and definitely planned to stay at home in England, even though he felt like an outsider because as a toddler he learned an American accent from the teacher and it stuck...but he didn't have any idea what Numbuh .4 had been through, nor did he want to ask, in fact he found he was getting distracted from Numbuh .4's explanation how Numbuh .4' tech worked. Ugh, he didn't like how his mind wandered into tangents sometimes-he had asked about the 2x4 tech that Numbuh .4 made, after all. "- goes the giant aluminum foil ball, which I couldn't have constructed without Numbuh .5's help..."

"Lenny! Are you saying I'm fat?!" Numbuh .5 was scouting at the edge of Grandfather's front yard, ran back with her arms swaying in front of her and her fists balled. She glared at Numbuh .4, jumped up, and punched him in the arm.

Numbuh .2's green eyes widened all of a sudden and he stopped patting the not-spiny belly of the porcupine.

"We do have codenames, remember?" he asked, half-irritated, half-alarmed.

"Yeah, I know!" answered Numbuh .5 with a stubborn tone. "But Numbuh .4's callin' me fat!"

"Ow! All I'm saying's you eat a lot of leftover pizza..ow!" Numbuh .4 endured the shortest kid's friendly grudge. Numbuh .3 and Numbuh .1 continued what they were doing at their stations, equally large wooden machines.

"What does any of this have to do with keeping our real names secret?" Numbuh .2 wouldn't let it slide and stared down Numbuh .5, not in judgment, but in concern, but still expecting clarification.

"Relax chico, we're all kids here and the villains are a no-show so far!" Numbuh .5 responded in her relaxed cadence, as if every day was beach day.

"Um, I'm guessing Numbuh .5 is the kid that fights a lot?" asked Numbuh 2 with a cautious, questioning tone. He dared not remark on her short height, even shorter than Numbuh .1. Numbuh 2 was watching Numbuh .4 rub his arm sorely.

"Ahem..combat specialist!" Numbuh .5 corrected and did a crude curtsy while giving a pleased look.

"But Numbuh .4 has the punching gloves..?"

Numbuh .4 hit the air a couple of times with his arm that wasn't sore. His gloves sparked with energy.

"Don't let the boxing gloves fool you, I'm actually the lightweight around here," Numbuh .4 said a little sheepishly, scratching the back of his helmet that protected the sides and back of his head and leaning his head to an angle. That appearances were deceiving when it came to Numbuh .4 now made sense to him. Numbuh .4 had a high-pitched and nasal voice, and was weak, just like him. He just didn't make the connection because he wasn't much of a fighter, he preferred running away..."But, I always land my hits," Numbuh .4 gave a little proud smirk, with the air of an expert. Numbuh 2 nodded.

"W-wow..."

"Yep, I can break your sunny plexus!" Numbuh .5 grinned, pounding her bare fist in her hand with a loud smack. "Numbuh .4 needs a boost, that's why his gloves are electricy."

"Aaahhh...how'd you start the electric current?"

"You sure end every sentence with a question, don't you Numbuh 2?" observed Numbuh .3, who emerged with a makeshift screwdriver from behind the giant cart on wheels, loaded up with stacks of cans and bottles laid horizontally. She walked up to the new operative and stared him down. Numbuh 2 shrank and dug his hands into the pocket of his puffy coat and looked down at the grass.

"Um.."

Numbuh .3's narrowed expression warmed into a smile. "I was shy as you when I joined the Kids Next Door. Everyone's like family here, especially in our Sector."

"Did you build this one?" Numbuh 2 looked sad when Numbuh .3 mentioned family and he deliberately avoided the subject and pointed to the large wooden cart.

"Yeah, that's one of mine. I'm not going to tell you what it does, though-unlike _some_ operatives-" she raised her voice louder-"I'm actually modest," Numbuh .3 rolled her eyes.

"And I'm _not?_ " challenged Numbuh .4, tapping his green vest that added an extra layer of protection, with his boxing glove. Numbuh .3 gave him a sideways grin and poked his arm with her bright green umbrella. "Ow, Numbuh .5 already punched me there!"

"Alright, come on you guys, game face! The villains'll be here any second now!" yelled the second-shortest kid, Numbuh .1, waved his arms decisively. "Kids Next Door, to your positions!"

The five scattered in an organized way, Numbuh .3 climbed into her cart, Numbuh .4 got behind his seesaw-looking device, Numbuh .2 aimed the p-shooter, and Numbuh .1 headed towards the last machine, which was the biggest one, and which Numbuh 2 didn't get to even walk around it so he didn't have a clue to what it was, he had only gotten to examine Numbuh .4's machine.

"Um..Numbuh .1, what's my position?" asked Numbuh 2, looking around lost. He had spent so much time talking to the other kids that he had forgotten to ask what they wanted him to do.

"Why're you asking me that?" Numbuh .1 gave Numbuh 2 a confused look, then flattered. "Oh! You think I'm the leader!"

"Well..you're the one giving all the orders, and you're confident and um loud-" he whispered, trying not to offend the short blonde kid, but the short blonde kid still looked proud, so he got slightly louder. "-so I thought.."

"I'M the leader!" hollered Numbuh .5, jumping off of Numbuh .3's cart and landing hard in front of Numbuh 2. Numbuh 2 squirmed in apology. "Surprised, huh?! We modeled our Sector off of Numbuh 0-that means whoever has the sunglasses, is the leader!" she pointed a brown finger at herself. "Numbuh .1, he's more like the strategist. Leader and strategist isn't the same. And if you were guessing the leader based on loudness, well there ain't anyone that's being LOUDER THAN ME, RIGHT GUYS?!"

"Ow, my eardrums..! Great, now my arm is achy and my eardrums too..!"

"Yes, Numbuh .5, there is no one louder than you. But please, keep it down or we'll lose the p-shooter again..." Numbuh .2 cautioned, trying to calm down the newly-re-agitated porcupine.

"As you've might have guessed, we all have our specialties. Numbuh .1 is the Strategist, Numbuh .2 is the 2x4 Tech Wiz, Numbuh .4 is the Creative Design Specialist, our leader Numbuh .5 is the Combat Specialist and Practitioner of Shattering Eardrums with Loudness, and as for myself.." she leaned on her umbrella. She was a tall girl and her holding the umbrella made her look even more imposing. "I'm Sector Z's resident swordskid."

Numbuh 2 nodded and nodded some more. He had watched them all and their titles matched with their skills, though he hadn't seen Numbuh .1 do much of strategizing and hadn't seen Numbuh .3's swords skills yet. And that would explain why Numbuh .4's tech was more whimsyful, fun, and had required the least materials to build, maximizing efficiency, and Numbuh .2's tech was technically advanced but utilitarian and required a lot of interlocking parts. But there was something else he wasn't sure on.

"But I thought Numbuh 0 didn't want there to be any leaders, though, right? He doesn't like hierarifics."

Numbuh .2 looked up from feeding the porcupine another berry to convince it to not run off again and shifted his green gaze, as if he heard something that suddenly bothered him, and this time it wasn't Numbuh .5's casual use of Numbuh .4's real name.

"That's ok now that Grandfather's defeated, but in Sector Z we've got a butt-ton of enemies!" explained Numbuh .5 at half-volume, raising her arms widely into the air, her sleeves rolling down. "Someone's gotta keep their head on straight or we'll get totally destroyified by the villains! And by head on straight I mean we charge at the villains straight-on!" She squatted and tackled the air to make her point.

"You keep saying villains um Sector Z leader. Who are the villains?" asked Numbuh 2, his mouth forming a clueless o-shape.

"The evil adults, duh!"

"Oh...but Grandfather isn't evil anymore.."

"Yeah, but a lot of adults in Sector Z are evil, they're really evil, not as evil as Grandfather was, but still really evil!"

Villain was a new word for Numbuh 2. He knew the evil adult by evil and adult, he thought that their leader was calling the evil adults villains but he wanted to ask just to make sure, even if it made him look stupid to Sector Z.

"Like how evil?" but he was determined to redeem himself, to show that he understood. He was so busy wrapped up in talking with their leader that he didn't realize Numbuh .1 walk up in front of him and grab the lower edge of his puffy coat. "H-hey, Numbuh .1, what are you doing?"

"No self-respecting Kids Next Door operative walks around with their shirt tucked in!" The second-shortest kid declared. He'd been focused on Numbuh 2 the moment Numbuh 2 thought he was the leader, and was determined to show the newcomer his leaderish qualities. Also, the new kid's fashion was driving him up the wall! He found the hem of Numbuh .2's coat and the other kid was just stuck awkwardly holding his arms straight out to his sides, blinking confusedly under his cap which he pulled down further now that Numbuh .1 was so close by him. Numbuh .1 found the hopelessly uptight kid's shirt and pulled it down and then pulled his coat back down, stepping back to look over his work. "There, much better! You can't fight adult tyranny if your clothes are dorky!"

Numbuh 2 glanced down at his shirt hanging below his coat.

"Uh, if you say so, I guess..." But the new kid wasn't so uptight to totally resist his attempt to make the new kid cooler, and the new kid looked like he liked his shirt hanging out, even though the color was light gray and didn't match the new kid's dark gray puffy coat. "I guess you're the Strategist and the Fashion Expert..."

"Yep, and don't you forget it!" Numbuh .1 slammed his hip with his gloved fist emphatically. "I'm the coolest kid of Sector Z, if not the entire Kids Next Door!" he grinned. "And as the Master of Cool, I got a reputation to keep up!"

Numbuh 2 looked the shorter kid up and down. Come to think of it, Numbuh .1 dressed the coolest-he had noticed it before, but he hadn't tried to analyze what made Numbuh .1 cool, so he took a few seconds to do that now-big wide black trousers that carelessly ran all the way down to his casual brown shoes, a green turtle neck and a brown pebble, raisin, gumball, and other non-metal objects ammo belt draped around his chest. Numbuh .5 also wore a non-metal objects ammo belt, a red one. Numbuh .1's beret was also black with a red Z badge, and he had those mean-looking spinning tops and he wore black gloves. Numbuh 2 felt self-conscious, and he raised his leg and tugged the hem of his much tighter trousers down, so at least his indigo socks weren't showing. He also took off his puffy coat, so he was just wearing the untucked gray shirt and brown slacks. "Lookit, my coolness is rubbin' off on you, Numbuh 2!" triumphed Numbuh .1. "You're looking less dorky already!"

Numbuh .5 was being very leaderly by managing to ignore all of the side conversations.

"How evil? Well you're about to find out..!" Numbuh .5 assumed a fighting stance, and keeping her gray tights-covered legs wide her big olive green dress looked way bigger, and the rest of Sector Z immediately stopped what they were doing and hurried into their formation, as a car drove up fast onto the curb and a bunch of adults piled out, maliciously laughing. At their head was a young-ish adult but was already sporting a thinning mane of light brown hair. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was gihugic.

"Well well, we've finally found you, Sector Z. Tonight's the night we defeat you brats or my name isn't Mr. Intern!"


	8. Battle At Grandfather's House

"They sure aren't taking any chances this time...not a lot of them but these are the toughest enemies in our Sector..." the blonde kid, the second-shortest of them, said under his breath. His posture looked like he was assessing. Just as quickly, he taunted, with exaggerated optimism, "Ha! Is that all you got?" His posture had changed to deciding, flaunting his coolness.

Numbuh .2 had his chin slightly downwards, analyzing, evaluating. "Disactivating the flashlight'll slow down the Ice Cream Tweens." A little smile. "I found out they have nightblindness when I went undercover in the Tasty Taste Ice Cream Factory that one time.." he clarified. It had taken a few hours hanging around him, but now Numbuh 2 had memorized what Numbuh .2 looked like, he was the kid with the long sand-brown bangs and green eyes. The tallest one. His little smile was like the non-evil adults used. Numbuh 2 remembered non-evil adults from before the factories. Numbuh 2 thought Numbuh .2 looked like a small adult in his red turtleneck sweater and long gray trousers and brown boots. Also his weapon, that he pulled out from behind his back, was a billards stick. He had heard of billiards halls but never had been, he heard they were grown-up places.

"But not Mr. Intern, Soccer Girl and-who the heck're those three?" Numbuh 2 was jolted out of his series of thoughts by Numbuh .1's harsh, excitable voice.

"Don't know but-didya see that?" exclaimed Numbuh .5, yelling and waving her arms. Her shades slid down, revealing her alarmed eyes, but it was hard to absorb any other details because she was moving around so much and was a few feet farther away, but he realized there was a battle going around him and he should stop zoning out.

"Yeah, Soccer Girl's aiming for our defenses," observed Numbuh .2, even and observational.

"Well, that settles who we want outta the running first...Numbuh.4!" Sognalled Numbuh .1, glancing over his shoulder.

"And here we goooo!" Numbuh .4 jumped up two feet onto his big-size tech, which launched the giant aluminum foil ball into the air.

"Greasy mustard at 12:00!" alerted Mr. Intern. Soccer girl, whose hair was tightly pulled into a sweatband, looked up and scowled.

"Those brats think they can get one over this goalie! ARGH!" She changed course and instead of kicking the ball into one of the three wooden machines, she booted the ball straight up into the blue-black sky, knocking the aluminum foil ball off course which landed on one of the Ice Cream Tweens-11-12 year-olds who had dedicated their lives to evil and a steady paycheck.

"Ahhhh, how can an aluminum foil ball be this heavy?! Darn you, school cafeteria!" cursed the Ice Cream Tween, flailing under the shiny and smelly foil ball.

"Yeah, we got one, but Soccer Girl's still in commission! Numbuh .3!"

"I'm on it!"

The ball landed and before it stopped bouncing and Numbuh .3 could reach her, Soccer Girl kicked it, once again at Numbuh .4's 2x4 tech. This time it hit, breaking the wooden tech into parts that thudded on the ground.

"Oh, noooo!" wailed Numbuh .4. But he saw the ball skid way past the yard and out into the street. Soccer Girl took off after it. "I will have my revenge!" Numbuh .4 started off after her, but Numbuh .5 pulled him back.

"Wait, Numbuh .4! She's gotta chase the ball! Lets melee the rest of 'em!"

"Oh yeah...!"

Numbuh .5 and Numbuh .4 rushed at Mr. Intern, only to be clocked in the head by a sparkly baton.

"Not pleased to meet you, I'm the leader of the Juvenille Squad and because of you brats I'm missing my late-night cheerleading practice! You're not getting anywhere near Mr. Intern! Get 'em, boys!"

The two masked teenagers started mercilessly beating up Numbuhs .4 and .5. One of the Ice Cream Tweens grabbed Numbuh 2 and pulled his arm behind him, causing him to yelp, and the other sat on Numbuh .1's back.

"Ugnhh, Numbuh .3, now would be a good time.."

"Owwwwie, that hurts..."

Numbuh .3 ran as fast as she could to her big-size tech, two Ice Cream tweens right behind her. One got too close and grabbed her hair. Numbuh .3 grimaced in sharp pain and swung her umbrella hard, catching one behind his knee and he let go. She swept her umbrella downwards at an angle, tripping the other Ice Cream Tween and flipping him upside down so he landed on his back on the grassy ground with a groan. Numbuh .3 jumped into her cart and with a pair of souped-up safety scissors she cut the ribbon with one snip-the ribbon was holding the cans and bottles and they rumbled down the ramp and into the yard.

Seeing the bottles rolling towards them, the rest of the Ice Cream Tweens let go of Numbuh .1 and Numbuh 2 and dashed off in a panic, but the gumballs, marbles, pebbles, and other round objects from Numbuh .1's non-metal ammo belt sent them slipping and sliding, and the bottles rolled under and onto them.

Numbuh .1 picked himself off the ground and glanced down at Numbuh 2, who was still lying face-down on the grass, holding his arm and trying not to scream.

"We gotta help Numbuhs .3 and .4-but I can't spin my tops 'cause I don't wanna hit Numbuhs .5 and .4. We need something that's more preciser. Follow me!"

Numbuh 2 obeyed Numbuh .1, still shaken up and his arm hurting and a little sad that Numbuh .1 just assumed he was fine. But more than annoyed, he felt warm. Not sick warm-but-warm like the inside of his body was warm. He got to the device. Numbuh .1 had leaped into it without much effort, but Numbuh 2 was circling around it, trying to find a place where he could get a foothold to climb.

"What're you doing?! Here!" Numbuh .1 grabbed Numbuh 2's hand. "Whoa, that's weird-why's your hand so hot?"

"Um, I dunno.."

"Here, all you've got to do is press the button on this crossbow, then reload with a new plunger, they're over here, got it? Don't aim for anything, just make enough confusion to distract the Juvenile Squad!"

"Ok." Numbuh 2 kneeled in front of the crossbow, and looked out over the dark green grass as fast as he could. He saw Numbuhs .4 and .5, still getting beaten up by the evil teenagers. Mr. Intern was behind them, smoking his cigarette. All the Ice Cream bigger kids were lying on the ground. Numbuh 2 shakily pressed the button and fired one plunger. Mr. Intern turned around. It hit Mr. Intern in the rear.

"I told you not to hit anything! Totally sweet aim, though. My turn." Numbuh .1 pushed Numbuh 2 away from the crossbow, set another plunger, and fired, hitting Sheldon-he kbew it was Sheldon because the teen had a shirt that said 'Sheldon' printed on the front, in the face with the plunger. Numbuh .4 struggled to get up.

"What is this stuff?! It won't come off!"

"Caramel-based glue, straight from the top KND scientists!"

"Wow...!"

"And here's another one for you!"

Numbuh .5, bruised, got free, and she helped Numbuh .4, battered, off the field.

"Alright, NOW you brats have done it!" Mr. Intern pressed a button on a remote, and out of his car came a rolly swivel office chair-not the big comfy ones though, the ones that have a back only in the head part to save money. The chair was equipped with a rocket and Mr. Intern shot forward, barely missing the defeated Juvenille Squad and Ice Cream Tweens. He looked dumb with the plunger stuck to his rear but him hurtling towards them at fortyteen miles an hour was no less terrifying.

But then right as he was about to crash into Numbuh .1's big-size tech, a scared porcupine whizzed through the air and stuck to Mr. Intern's face.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Mr. Intern howled. He fell off the chair, and got the porcupine unstuck from him, and the scared porcupine fled across the street, and the chair exploded on the wooden platform just as Numbuhs .1 and Numbuh 2 abandoned it. Numbuh .1 landed on his feet, Numbuh 2 landed on his side, and om his uninjured arm.

"Oogh.."

He felt even warmer, not just because of the exploded chair, but in his bidy, too...

The rocket chair was equipped with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire, but it was charred beyond usability.

"Nice save, Numbuh .2," Numbuh .1 said. "How're Numbuh .4 and .5?"

"They're ok, I used up all my bandages though. But we did it, we won-"

A hurtling soccer ball rammed the back of Numbuh .2's neck, and he flopped forward on the grass.

"Numbuh .2...Numbuh .2...David!" yelled Numbuh .1, shaking him.

The ball hit Numbuh .1 too, slamming him into Numbuh .3's cart. He hit the back of his head and slumped on the ground, features twisted in pain as the shock waves from the impact overpowered him. A cleated shoe caught the ball in mid-roll.

"Only one left to go-the runt!" Soccer Girl dribbled the ball dangerously between her feet, eyeing Numbuh 2 like a hungry leopard. "She shoots..." The ball came screaming towards him. Numbuh 2 crouched on the ground, covering his head and crying. He watched his tears drop to the ground, and turn to steam. Numbuh .1 struggled up to see what Numbuh 2 was doing. Numbuh 2 looked over, his loose cap had fallen off his head, steam coming out of his eyes. They were..bright blue...but not like a natural blue...wait a minute...all KND operatives had heard about how the world was saved..how Numbuh 0 had found the Book of KND and that he had tried to get his coward brother to join him..And _Numbuh 0's coward brother_ had bright blue eyes, and only after Grandfather had zapped him with his creepy fingers...it couldn't be that...Numbuh 2 was..Numbuh 0's totally uncool brother...? But Numbuh .1 didn't have much time to think about it before something else happened. Smoke was now coming out of Numbuh 2's whole body.

"What's happening to me..?" Just as the ball hit him, his chest caught fire, busting through the ball and reducing it to melted plastic. The fire went back inside of him as soon as it appeared. His shirt was gone, but his chest wasn't burned, or singed, or even scratched.

Numbuh .1 had seen the fire burst out of and go back into the other operative's chest. He sat there with his mouth gaping open. He saw Numbuh 2 look at him, mortified. His eyes, no longer bright blue, were yellow and smoldering.

"It's..it's a monster! Ahhhh!" Soccer Girl ran off, leaving her defeated fellow villains defeated in Grandfather's yard. At this point Numbuh 0's brother abandoned his disguise. Numbuh .1 had seen his eyes. He saw him burn the ball and his own shirt.

"Um, s-sorry, I was gunna tell you earlier..that I'm Grandfather's other son, Ben...but I didn't know..that his powers're genetic..." He looked over at Numbuh 1. "But..this doesn't change anything, does it? I can s-still be in the Kids Next Door..? W-we can s-still be f-friends?"

So that was his name. Ben. There were rumors among older KND operatives that Numbuh 0 had a brother, a coward who didn't help Numbuh 0, ran away, and went back to Grandfather. There were reports of him at the Sector E Treehouse, but Sector Z was still in Sector Z. But the few times ge heard Sector E mention Ben, it was in disgust. And here he was hiding in plain sight, with their Sector! Numbuh .1 was still shocked, he was so overwhelmed he couldn't even answer verbally. Instead he slowly and painfully pulled himself off the ground and grabbed Numbuh 2.. Ben's hand, squeezing it.

"Repeat the oath of loyalty to the KND."

"I promise um.. to fight adult tyranny without cause, um..without f-fail, except for cream soda breaks."

"Don't stutter this time!" Ben flinched and nodded with his yellow eyes shut while looking away from Numbuh .1. "Look over here, over here! What's your KND codename?"

"2."

"I can't hear you!"

"Numbuh 2!"

Numbuh .1 shook his hand. A bicycle horn honked. Ben froze.

"My first day back at work in _three years_ , and I return to find my yard in such unbelievable disarray? OUT, all of you! OUT!"

Grandfather took his cane and started chasing the motley assortment of kids and adults off of his lawn. Mr. Intern ran back to his car with the plunger still stuck on his rear and with his face full of porcupine needles. The Ice Cream tweens followed limping behind him. The car sped off rapidly, and the Juvenille Squad, also with plungers stuck to them, ran after the car, calling for it to come back. The remnants of the battle-the destroyed rocket-powered chair, the damaged big-size tech, pebbles, gumballs, and other non-metal objects, the wooden cart which had managed to survive the battle, the giant aluminum foil ball, crumpled cans and broken bottles, and the melted heap of the soccer ball all decorated Grandfather's lawn. Sector Z, who had recovered enough to stand, were escaping. Ben started to follow.

"Not YOU, Benedict. Clean this up."

"Yes, Pappy.."

"Benedict!"

"Yes, Pappy?"

"Stand up straight."

Ben straightened. Grandfather took a heavy step towards him.

"There's something different about you...your eyes.." His face twisted with disgust. "They're yellow, what an ugly color. You were always an ugly child."

"Yes, Pappy.."

"Benedict!"

"Yes, Pappy?"

"You will not start cleaning until you've put on a fresh shirt. Inside NOW!"

"Y-yes, Pappy..!" Ben hurried towards the house, but in the doorway, Ben glimpsed Numbuhs .1 and a weak Numbuh .2 signalling at him from the bushes. Ben's look of worry turned into a joy-filled smile, and signaled back as Grandfather slammed the door.


	9. Consensus

Author's note: Numbuh .3 is canonly unnamed, so using the name Ashley for her.

"C'mon, y'guys know the protocol! If we're not sure we gotta tell on a KND operative, we put it to a vote, ok?! My vote's don't tell.'

"Tellllllldonttelllllltellllldonttellllll.."

"Any YEAR now, Leonardo!" Numbuh .5 yelled impatiently.

"Don't tell," Numbuh .4 stated, wincing as he shifted on his colorful crutch from the KNDfirmary. The KNDfirmary didn't exist yet at the Seventh Age's founding, but it didn't take long for medics to join the KND, as they realized they wouldn't be able to function good without kids with deep knowledge of physiology and stuff beyond what they learned in third-grade science class. In fact they had reasons to think that the teachers were purposely teaching them wrong stuff to make kids dumb so they'd be more vulnerable to adult attack. But then they had taken learning things into their own hands. The adult villains had gotten so mad when they'd beat up some KND members and hours later they had been back fighting again! "I'm of course looking at it from a strategy point of view, if I can, Numbuh .1. Can you imagine what'd happen if the adults got a hold of him? A real live..."

"Lenny!" Numbuh .3 interrupted, also getting a little exasperated by Numbuh .4's not wanting to het to the point.

"Ok, ok! A real live mon-ster?" Lenny had hesitated for so long because some people didn't think of himself as human though he was, so he was sensitive about using the word to refer to other people, even when it was an objective fact. Not just anybody could burst into flame and survive. "I mean, from what Bruce told us he's a really chill monster, but stil, what if the adults got him on their side? It'd be the end of the Kids Next Door!" Lenny worriedly waved the one arm that wasn't using the crutch.

"We're not at that point in the agenda yet, Numbuh .4!" Numbuh .5 knocked her least-injured fist on the tree stump that served as a table within the larger tree. We're doing voting now so AFTER we can talk about that next!" Numbuh .5 was determined to keep the meeting on task. She was also not in a good mood because she also had gone to the KNDfirmary and was bandaged like a neon mummy. "Ashley, your vote!"

"Pass."

"David?"

"...I knew there was something up with him..he knew things he couldn't have, not unless he was at the treehouse before."

"Knew things? Like what?"

"That Sector E doesn't have a leader, because Numbuh 0 is cautious of leaders."

Numbuh .5 looked puzzled. "Numbuh 0 is cautious, and uhh..ya lost me there."

"I think suspicious is the word you want, David," chimed in Lenny from across the tree trunk that was the table.

"Right, whatever."

"But why did he leave in the first place?"

Numbuh 2 narrowed his green eyes in hostility.

"It's obvious. The other operatives didn't trust him and told him not to come back. So he went to the adults...and they told him to wear a disguise and join the Kids Next Door...to infiltrate us from the inside."

Numbuh .5 gasped in shock. Numbuh .3 nodded gravely, crossing her arms. Numbuh .1 stayed quiet gloved hands on the tree trunk table.

"Now hold on!" Numbuh .4 stood up in protest "I know you infilttate the adults sometimes David, but for him to do the same to us doesn't make any sense."

"Like this is your field, Lenny.." Numbuh .2 tolled his eyes. He was in no mood.

"Yes, my field is empathy. You should try it sometime," Numbuh .4 cast a sideling glance at Numbuh .2

"Was that supposed to be an insult?"

"CHICOS!"

"So if I were a mysterious monster kid that could catch fire without needing to go to a hospital, and the adults got ahold of me, the first thing I'd do is..."

"Lenny, come on, it's almost 3AM," Numbuh .3 urged in agitation.

"..Burn down the treehouse!"

"Hm. Hadn't thought about it," Numbuh .2 replied. "Still, Numbuh 0 said we need to inform the entire Kids Next Door of any KND member who becomes a threat to the organization. And that fire power of his qualifies him as a threat."

"So the rumors were true. Numbuh 2, Ben I mean..really did come to the treehouse before we arrived and came back in disguise for some reason," Numbuh .1 said. "We don't know why he came back..but He felt bad about it. ..and he took the KND oath of loyalty again! He really wants to stay in the KND!" Numbuh .1 blurted, punching the tree stump table.

"But he could have hurt someone! He could have hurt ANY of us, a lot WORSE than even the adults did!" Numbuh .2 argued back, raising his voice full of stern fear, and confusion. He was the only one sitting down, so weak from the fight two days ago that he was in a wheelchair, in calm, pastel colors. His billard stick was in a pouch in the back of the wheelchair. He had lost two days' practice with it and was extra on edge. Besides, he felt he was the only one looking at this logically.

"Fine, then _I_ want him to stay in the KND!"

"This is what's good for the TEAM!" David yelled this time, roughly, almost a growl. Numbuh .1 shrank back a little. He was the rough kid around here, but seeing David get kinda mean like that surprised him.

"STOP IT!" bellowed Numbuh .5, her voice vibrating in the treehouse walls. "The votes are in! 3 to 1 with one pass, that means we don't tell! Now, second point on the agenda! And I'll ask Numbuh .2 'cause he's feeling the most strongest about this."

"He can't come back to the Treehouse."

"Exile from the Treehouse of Coolness is de facto decomissionment. We might as well tell on 'im right now if we're gonna not let'im back in the Treehouse!" Numbuh .5 countered. Part of being Sector leader was knowing all of the KND rules, and Numbuh .5 knew the KND rules and what they meant on a practical level, not only from the Seventh Age but as far back to the Third Age!

"Hm.." Numbuh .4's concern was the adults turning the monster loose onto the KND, but since no one else was worried about that and were more worried about the monster doing damage just on his own, he put together a friendlier suggestion. "What if we put fireresisting flooring in the verrry bottom room of the treehouse, a room that no one's using much? We could meet him there, explain to him what the deal is- _delicately_ ," Numbuh .4's brown eyes narrowed and glared at David. Usually he glared up but David was in the wheelchair so he was glaring down. "And fireresisting walls, too! And the ceiling too!"

There was a moment of quiet pondering. The 3AM outside noises seeped through the outermost Treehouse wall. Ashley spoke up, yawning as she steadied herself on the handle of her dusty umbrella with threads from their enemies' clothes still left on it. Numbuh .3 cleared her throat and spoke up.

"If we want to keep Numbuh 2...Ben's problem-'" After the battle two days ago Ben had told Numbuh .1 his name, and now Sector Z knew his name since Numbuh .1 didn't keep confidentialness. "Then we can't do the ceiling-the next floor up is the Treehouse of Coolness Training Room, and they need the floor to be completely wood, for the KND inductees who have PTSD from the concrete factory floor..." she paused, her tone noting the ridiculousness of having this debate over an unproven son of Grandfather, the Evil King of the World, who had caused so much misery and hurt to kids everywhere. But, being of cool judgment, she stayed impartial. " And I don't feel like getting lectured by the New KND Member Orientationer, Numbuh 50, do you?"

"...Not particularly.." Lenny lowered his head in resignation. He always took it personally when his designs or suggestions weren't accepted. But he understood that this time it was for a good reason and not like last time when he wanted to put a cotton candy machine on the top floor of the Sector Z treehouse, hook it up to a tube that connected to all of their rooms, so they could eat cotton candy while still in bed!

Numbuh .5 wasn't good with battle strategy and stuff, and she came off as kind of abrasive, but as leader she knew each of her teammates' personalities and tried to get them all to work together as best as she could.

"Oye, Bruce, ya said that Ben's fire was just enough to melt the soccer ball?"

"Yeah, and his shirt too. It wasn't a big fire." Bruce was rubbing his eyes. He was usually in bed by 11:26 but obviously was awake for the emergency meeting. His tone sounded defeated, or indifferent, indifferent because it was defeated.

"Then we can put in fire-resistent floors and walls, and just SKIP the ceiling! Motion to do THAT! Any objections?" David still looked skeptical, but then shook his head with the others.

"Ok, motion is-" Numbuh .5 raised her arms, the sleeves of her olive green dress rolling down to her big elbows.

"Motion to amend the motion," Numbuh .3 stood up sharply, holding her umbrella vertically out in front of her in a somewhat authoritic pose.

"Motion to amend the motion approved!"

"Look, though we don't want to _hurt_ Ben, he _is_ a serious liability. So I motion that we have him train with us, _in secret_ , so we can see exactly what his powers can do. All we really know is that he can set himself on fire without hurting himself. That way if he has any other surprises we'll know about it and be able to put in counter-measures to keep all of us safe while going easy on-well, me and Constance don't know him too well but you guys made friends with him right?"

Bruce had thought Ben hopeless at first but with a little help got the groove down and during the fight against the villains he had proved himself. And on a more mushy note, definitely Ben wanted to be his friend, and that hit Bruce in the soft spot, tough and rude as he was. Lenny nodded affectionately as he felt Ben really appreciated his work as Sector Z's Creative Design Specialist and also didn't make fun of him for being a darker brown. Ben himself was kind of a light light brown but sometimes it was just a shade or two that could make the light kid get all mean but that wasn't the case with Ben. And, Ben was a monster. As long as they didn't follow adults, monsters were cool with him and pretty rad and sometimes he wondered what it'd be like to not be human and be able to make those who had hurt you cower and beg forgiveness for every time they threw you against lockers and got you sent to detention! David looked a little guilty. He was the first to really bond with Ben but now he felt like was his enemy. So, Ashley's compromise was welcomed.

All five members of Sector Z chorused,

"No objections!"

"Alright, all motions are voted on, so this meeting of Sector Z is ADJOURNED! Lets get some cookies n' cream soda!"

"YEAH!"


	10. To the solitary tree

The birds were chirping around the neighborhood. Bikes with bells and the occasional car passed on the left side of the street through the tight lanes. Numbuh .4 didn't have to dodge insane traffic like he did back home. This was more of a walking neighborhood, he realized Sector E had a lot of those.

He approached Grandfather's house from the back, as it was more likely the cranky and stern adult'd glance out his front window. Some squirrels scampered out of his way as he ran across the backyard, which was super close to the other adults' backyards and didn't have fences. Funny, he pictured Grandfather to be rich. But what use would he have to be rich when he had evil world-transforming powers?

Numbuh .4 held his chin in his boxing gloved hand. The blinds were shut and he didn't know which room was the right one. He thought of playing the Rainbow Monkey theme song. Rainbow Monkeys was a new show that was all the rage in Sector Z and other Sectors too. He then thought of throwing a few pebbles at one of the windows. He picked up a nice solid small rock, and tested it with an upward toss.

"Kinda heavy.." He was regretting not bringing the homemade pogo stick he'd been working on but it still wasn't finished and that could mean another trip to the KNDfirmary. He was off the critch, but was still achy from the previous battle Then his brown eyes lit up. "Got it! Numbuh. 4 snapped his fingers which inside the glove was kind of a dull sound and he pulled out a pair of bright binoculars. He pressed a button on the side of the binoculars and the binoculars telescoped out far enough that it tapped on the house. Numbuh .4 dove into the only shrub in the yard, which was out by the street. He then peered through the vegetation and waited.

The blinds on the left window raised, and Numbuh .4 saw Ben spray the window with a water bottle and soap it with a sponge. Numbuh .4 rolled out of the bush, covered in leaves and twigs, and waved enthusiastically to Ben. Ben looked startled through the suds rolling down the glass window and turned his back.

"Wait, Ben! Don't go away!" Numbuh .4 whisper-shouted, and started jumping up and down like a six-year old. "Ben!"

Ben came back. Lenny saw he was wearing a red bow tie and blue suspenders, like as Numbuh .1 would put it, a dork. It was also the first time that Numbuh .4 got a good look at Ben without a disguise, he noticed Ben's yellow eyes. He actually didn't know much about him apart from what Numbuh .1 had relayed after the battle and what, earlier, Numbuh 0 had described to them incidentally after scouting for enemy adults when they first got to Sector E-how Grandfather tried to do this terrifying thing called 'Delightfulization' to Numbuh 0 and failed, and succeeded with Ben, simply by touching their foreheads with his fingers, which was why Ben's eyes had been bright blue. But now they were yellow.

Same as Grandfather's before he was de-powerized. Lenny couldn't help but shudder. He was in the presence of the monster.

Ben, sad and forlorn, held up a sign in chalk: I'M GROWNDED.

But Lenny also understood that he was also in the presence of another kid, and younger than him at that.

Lenny motioned exaggeratedly, sweeping his arm towards him, jumping up and down again. Ben slouched in the window, his elbows leaned on the sill. Lenny made a 'hold on a sec' motion with his gloved palm, and then skipped backwards, activated his electric gloves, and began writing in Grandfather's yard by punching the shape of letters out of the grass..PLS COME 2 TREEHSE, JUST A FEW MINUTS?

Ben looked genuinely moved. He scribbled 'OK BUT ONLEE FOR A FYEW MINUTES' on the same signboard and showed him. Numbuh .4 responded with two gloved thumbs up and raised them up and down happily. Ben opened the glass window, still squeaky from his soaping it, climbed out of the window, shut the window, dropped down onto the gutter, and then looked down at the next far jump. He clung to the wall of the house, afraid.

"Oh yeah..sorry! Don't know you can get down without a trampoline...ah!" Lenny spread his arms out. "I think you're light enough for me to catch you...!"

Ben shook his head rapidly, but the giant flying bird which screamed past his head didn't give him a choice. He fell off the gutter.

"Oh no...!"

But Ben didn't make a suspender-wearing splat on the ground. He instead halfway towards dropping on the ground, started slowing. As he slowed, he became more calm, and slowed some more.."H-huh?! You can fly?!"

Ben became scared again and dropped fast and hit the ground, but the rest of the way was only six inches rather good ten feet he would've fallen if he hadn't suddenly rebelled against gravity.. "How did you do that? I mean, you can do that fire thing but what the heck was that?..!" Lenny yelled excitedly. "Oh, and are you ok?"

"Yeah, but -you know about the fire thing, not just Numbuh .1..?" Ben looked up extremely embarassed, re-adjusting his glasses that had fallen down his slightly scratched nose. His wavy brown hair was a mess.

"Oh yeah..about that. We all know," Numbuh .4 admitted, though Numbuh .2 and Numbuh .3 had warned him to not give Ben too much info. But that's why he had gone alone, Numbuh .1 was being the too emotional one which didn't happen often..or didn't happen more like ever,and so Numbuh .5 had decided that he go because he was being the least stressifying right now, since Numbuh .1 said Ben's power happened when he was stressed during the previous battle.

"Even Monty and the rest of the Kids Next Door..?"

"Which Numbuh is Monty?" Numbuh .4 blinked.

"Oh..I don't wanna give his codename away, sorry I mentioned it.."

Numbuh .4's demeanor changed, but only slightly. So Ben knew someone in the Kids Next Door, and used their non-codename? Why'd he bring it up if it wasn't important? Was Ben just showing them that like how Sector Z knew things that Ben didn't, that Ben knew things Sector Z didn't? Was it payback for him telling Ben that Numbuh .1 told the rest of Sector Z about Ben's fire?

He remembered, he was also wary of his teammates saying too much, but it was because of operatives giving each other lice, careless discloshures, not anything like secrets kept out of maliceness.

Numbuh .4 didn't give himself away though.

"But no, only us Sector Z members knows. In fact, we thought your powers're so COOL that we want you to train with us. So come on!"

"Y..you and the rest of Sector Z thinks I'm cool..? Ok, but will the training take a long time? I've gotta get..." he looked up at the window. "back..nevermind, I'll train with you as long as you guys want...!" Ben made a noise that approximated a glad laugh as he followed Numbuh .4 across the field towards the forest that surrounded that solitary tree, the tree that was taking him away from his chores and his being grounded and taking him away from being around Pappy all the time. As Numbuh .4 headed into the forest Ben inhaled the scent of fresh pine and it smelled like relief, no, more like sanctuary.


	11. When Things Go Wrong

"Numbuh .3'll start you off, ok?" Numbuh .3 took charge of Ben while Numbuh .4 walked out of the well-lit secret training room, and met up with Numbuh .2 in the underground tunnel, the one that adjoined the bottomost chamber of the Treehouse of Coolness where the Book of KND was housed. Numbuh .2 walked slowly to meet his teammate. The very tall boy was now out of the wheelchair but supporting his weight on his billiard stick. He looked seriouser than ever before.

"So, what's your report?"

"I observed him cautiousfully. He's not a kid spy for the adults."

"You sure about that?" Numbuh .2 asked with a gaze laced with incredulousness. "Because Ben knows something about the KND from before we arrived in Sector E...when he said Numbuh 0 doesn't believe in hierarifics. Remember, before the battle? This is the first time I've heard of the Sector E KND not having a hiearchy."

"Wait, do you mean that..." it slowly dawned horribly on Numbuh .4, who half-covered his mouth with his hand and leaned backwards.

"Ben has been around the Kids Next Door, around Numbuh 0, before he joined as Numbuh 2."

The secret training room was supposed to be a toasty many degrees. But it was pretty cold, especially in the basement level of the treehouse.

"Huh? What do you mean you can't do the fire thing now?" asked Numbuh .3 with confusion and not without exasperation though she tried to not show her exasperation.

"I..i don't know how I did it the last time..I just heated up and next thing I know, fire's coming out of my chest.." replied Ben, closing a fist on his chest and shrugging his shoulders while shaking his head.

"But that by itself doesn't make him an adult spy..and neither does the fact he knows an operative named Monty.." reasoned Numbuh .4.

"You were stressed, weren't you, when you made the fire?" inquired Numbuh .3.

"Y-yeah, a lot..! Are you going to stress me out..? Please, don't do it..!" Ben bent his knees and held his hands in front of his face.

"I won't," Numbuh .3 vowed. "Tormenting other kids is the LAST thing I'd do. Our leader though..." she tilted her head a little mischievously.

"I think he's telling us he knows the identity of Numbuh 0. The kid is never around other kids. Who else could be Monty except for Numbuh 0?" David began to pace, his billiard stick hitting the cavern ground with ominous echo-y knocks.

"Oh no..." Lenny whispered in realization. He felt his legs get weak.

Ben is a spy for the adults."

"BOO!" Numbuh .5 leaped out from behind a stack of cream soda barrels, knocking one of the barrels to the floor. It started rolling.

Ben fell backwards, and put his hands out in quavering defense. An orb of flame grew out of his hands.

"Yes!" Numbuhs .5 and .3 high-fived, Numbuh .3 bending down to reach Numbuh .5's hand. Numbuh .3 then ran and stopped in front of Ben, driving her umbrella against the floor.

"Okay Numbuh 2, my job today is to see what you can do." Numbuh .3 tossed up her umbrella, caught it, and held her umbrella horizontally in front of her while tapping it against her palm. The floor and wall is fireproof so don't hold back."

But instead of the fire growing, it actually fizzled. "...I said DON'T hold back."

"What happened?!" Numbuh .5 was on top of the barrel as it rocked back and forth, but then jumped off of it, her eyebrows raised.

"I felt calmed down, I guess..? I still don't know how my fire works.."

"ARE YOU CALM NOW?!" screamed Numbuh .5

His head caught fire. .."Not really!"

"CALM, CALM, CALM!" Numbuh .5 grabbed some drum sticks from the corner and rapped a rythym on the fireresisting floor with the drum sticks. A fireball shot past her. "Whoa!" The fireball landed on the wall, lightly. But this time, the fireball grew.

This time his whole body caught fire, not just his chest. "Oh no, my clothes again..!"

Numbuh .3 looked away, the embarassing sight causing her to lose some of her authorityness. "Uh..Can you feel calm and stressed at the same time?"

"..At the same time..? I can try.." Ben slowed his breathing, tried to think how he was here in the Treehouse of Coolness...how peaceful the leaves made him feel, how upset that Grandfather made him feel..

When the flames subsided, his clothes were tattered and kind of burned, and his glasses charred, but hadn't burned completely.

Numbuh .3 sighed with relief. They had put in the fireresisting floor but had forgotten to bring extra clothes, but..

"So great! You can control your fire."

"When Numbuh .4 came to get me, I fell, but I didn't land on the ground...it might have to do with the brainwaves. Let me try it again." Ben got angry, forming a fireball faster this time. Then immediately went into a state of calmness..the fireball vanished entirely. He let his hands then wrist, then arm catch fire, and instead of panicking that his clothes were burning, he didn't get worried about it. "H-hey..I did it..!" He then took it one step further as his yellow irises rolled up to the top of his eyes impishly. He made another fireball, then threw it at Numbuh .3.

"Whoa, hey, what, no, that's too far!" Numbuh .3 jumped clear of the fireball that collided with the fireresisting wall, this time hitting the wall but instead of landing on the wall and just staying there like regular fire, hit with an small impact same as a tennis ball or softball, as the wall had a faint indent in it.

"I'm sorry! I wanted to see if I could stop the fire from burning your clothes, too..!" Ben apologized, but with a little less servility than usual.

"Uhh..great to see your initiative, but let's try something a little less risky! But Numbuh .3 looked back to see the fire had landed like it was a ball.

"Yeah, like these targets!" Numbuh .5 was ready. She pulled a lever on the other wall and out from a wooden platform a cardboard target appeared. The cardboard target read Mr. Intern's rear.

Ben threw the fire underhanded like a ball. The fire hit Mr. Intern's rear target and burned it in a half-minute to a crisp.

"Yeah, now try this!" Numbuh .5 raised three more targets. Ben made a fireball in each hand, and threw them at the two targets. He then shot a fireball at the third target.

"Ok, now make the biggest fire you can!" Numbuh .3 raised her arms for emphasis.

Ben this time caught fire with no problem, while thinking of Mr. Intern, then the fire climbed a few inches higher, and thought of how mean Soccer Girl was, and the fire got as tall as Numbuh .3. He started to strain. Ben then thought of Pappy and how bad he made him fire got as tall as Numbuh .4 and almost as tall as Numbuh .2..."Ok, too big, too big!"

Ben thought of Numbuh .5., .3, and the fire shrunk. .2 and .1, amd shrunk some more, and Monty, and the fire diminished and returned inside him. He sighed with relief.

Numbuh .3 was smiling, also with relief but a little pride. Numbuh .5 surprised Ben with a big hug.

"We've got to tell Numbuh 0!" Lenny ran towards the stair, panicked and urgent.

"No. I want to give him the chance..to leave without a fuss." Numbuh .2 headed into the secret training room. "Benedict! Is that for Benedict Arnold?"

"David, what the heck's wrong with you?" Numbuh .3 marched up to Numbuh .2, furious. "We just finished a very productive training! Numbuh 2 can control his fire powers with his brainwaves."

"He's working for the adults, a traitor to the KND."

"What?..!" Ben heated up fast, almost catching fire when Numbuh .5 was hugging him, dorky clothes and all. Numbuh .5 broke the hug because though Ben proved he could control it, she still was self-preserviating.

"What's your proof, David?!" demanded Numbuh .5, approaching him commandingly. "He passed the training!"

"He could've hurt us anytime during the training. But he didn't. He even learned to control it!" Numbuh .3 explained.

"Are you working for the adults, Numbuh 2?" asked Lenny, intervening again with his gentle way of putting things-direct, but not accusatory.

"No. I don't know why you think that!" Ben loomed really upset.

"You were in the treehouse, you overheard something Numbuh 0 said, and then you came back and joined the KND in disguise. Why the disguise?" questioned Numbuh .2, circling around Ben using his billiard stick as a cane.

"B-because," Ben cried, tears falling and finally hitting the ground. "I didn't fight Grandfather..but I wanted..I still want to be in the KND. The only time I'm happy is when I'm in the treehouse with you and all the other KND members! The only time I can be away from adults! I hate adults! You hear me?! I HATE them!" The flame burst out to the ceiling, and though he didn't burn the ceiling it slammed against the ceiling. It also burned up the ice cream soda barrel, spilling ice cream soda onto the floor. But the spill wan't by far the worst problem.

"What..what's that?!" Yelled Numbuh 50. "Oh nono, dont cry, Numbuh 64! Who set up right below the New KND Trainee Room?!"

"Are you satisfied now, David?..!" Numbuh .3 yelled in Numbuh .2's face. Her brown eyes were narrowed and outraged.

David nodded, his green eyes wide with both the sight of the fire and Ben's sincerity. "Now I need to pacify Numbuh !." She rushed up to the next floor.

"Well well welll..." Numbuh .99, who not known to Sector Z was the right-hand kid of Numbuh 0 and in the first team of the Seventh Age, and the one who was desperate to keep his freedom from adults, stepped into the training room. "A secret training room..where you've been training a confessed traitor."

"He's not a traitor...I made a mistake," said Numbuh .2, turning around to see Numbuh .99 in the doorway.

"Outta the way, Yank!" ordered Numbuh .99, barging past Numbuh .2, stepping in the ice cream soda, to grab Ben by his partially burned red bow tie. He held up his boards held together by a nail in threat.

"I knew it, that you were a filthy adult-worshipper from th' first minute. From th' first second ya went ' treehouse. Ya didn't belong then, and ya don't belong now!" Numbuh .99 switched on a microphone. "Attention, all members 'a th' KND! Numbuh 2 is really Benedict Uno, the coward who not only refused to fight Grandfather in Numbuh 0's glorious liberation of all kids, but is spyin' on th' Kids Next Door for th' villains! All KND members are called on to expel this ex-Kids Next Door traitor! Oh, and his other secret, he's also a fire monster that got Grandfather's evil powers, so no need to go easy on him! Just 'cause he's a kid don't mean he's no villain!" He glared at Sector Z. "As for all'a you, I got a mission meetin' t' go to. But after, you an' me gonna have a talk 'bout why you were harborin' Grandfather's son!" As theor situation sunk in amongst Numbuhs . 5, .4. .3, and .2, Numbuh .99 headed up the stair as a thunder of feet rumbled throughout the treehouse.

"N-no, I-I'm not a traitor...!" Ben protested.

"He's not! I told you, I made a mistake!" Numbuh .2 lurched forward while leaning hard against his billiard stick, his tone was plaintive. "And I'm certainly no traitor, either..." Numbuh .2 added angry, under his breath.

The training room filled fast with KND members, with all of thei tech.

Numbuh 0 was about a neighborhood away from the Treehouse, incidentally following the trail of the elusive Blurpleberry Ice Cream-a trail that had only been revealed by recent and vague rumours, when he glanced over at the treehouse, which was being shaken by a terrible, rather than joyful, loudness like usual.

"Somethin's wrong..!"

Someone launched the first projectile, a pie. It was followed by ketchup guns, a banana boomerang, and celery slingshots. The various food items hit its target, and Ben, covered in food, backed up against the fireresistant wall in a panic. But his flames weren't rising. It was a different kind of panic, one that wasn't triggering his fire. He was TOO stressed to catch on fire.

"Thats enough Numbuh .2 already said he's innocent!" shouted Numbuh .3, using her umbrella as a barrier to push away some of the more aggressive operatives.

"STOP IT ALREADY!" Numbuh .5 held off swarms of the attacking KND members, punching them away, knocking a lot of them back and shoving them down and kicking them when they tried to swarm back up again.

"If you defend a traitor youre a traitor too!"

"SAY THAT AGAIN, I DARE YOU!"

"Please, listen..ahhh!"

Lenny tried to get in front of Ben to protect him, but he got run over by the wave of advancing kids. Ben wasn't visible from Numbuh .3's eye level, as he was crouching against the wall, the several hundreds of kids forming a mass around him, jeering and throwing or launching whatever food they had left at him.

"Look at his yellow eyes! Those're villain eyes!"

"Get out of our treehouse!"

"Sellout! Suck-up!"

Numbuh .2 put a hand to his head, his features pained with regret.

"What've I done..?" he pushed through the wall of smaller kids. A food-covered Ben was curled up on the floor like a baby. But something else was happening to the smaller kid. A film of black-not like a regular shadow black but a shadow black as night spread down his arms, legs, chest, and covered the rest of his body.

"Where'd he go?!"

"Where are ya, traitor?!"

"Show yourself!"

The clamor in the tree intensified while David's keen green eyes saw shadowed Ben shrink down into a tiny tiny ball, which rapidly rolled away under the operatives' stamping feet. David shoved dozens of the other KND members out of the way, slipping of the fallen food, and fought his way to the exit, when he felt a fist collide with his face.

"What do you think you were doing?! Huh?!" Numbuh .1 braced his fist to hit David again. David held his nose protectively, but didn't protest at the punch. Numbuh .3 pushed them both apart, though only Numbuh .1 was on the offensive.

"Come on guys, this won't help. Lets go look for him instead!" encouraged Ashley blocking a relish spray hurled at her.

"I dont think when you wanted to find out his powers, this is what you had in mind, Numbuh .3, Lenny remarked, all bruised stomped on by the other kids, lightly but firmly pushing his way through the hostile crowd.

"Where could he be though?! What happened exactly?!" Numbuh .5 ran around in circles flailing angrily. All eyes were fixed on David

"He turned into a shadow, like Grandfather.." David relayed, still somewhat shocked..at the he and the rest of Sector Z were traitors for harboring Ben, the food flying at them. A chocolate bar grazed David's ear-and then Ben becoming a shadow..he was starting to lose his nerve. But he kept cool and steady. "Then he got smaller and rolled away."

"Then how are we supposed to find him?!" Numbuh .1 was stomping around the still-crowded room, dodging the flying food, trying to ignore the jeers from his angry fellow KND members and how the anger of almost all the KND to which all five of them were fervently loyal was directed to them.

"I'm responsible.."

"Yeah darn right you are!" yelled Numbuh .1, incensed enough to lunge for Numbuh .2 again.

"So I'm going to get to work."

"On what?" Numbuh .1 asked, still angry but holding his punch. A bag of chips was dumped over Numbuh .1's head, and they stuffed the bag on his head. "That's it!" Numbuh .1 spun his tops tjat sparked with electricity, zapping his assailants away . Numbuh .3 pulled the chips bag off of her teammate's head. "Where are you goin', David?"

"To go build 2 x4 tech that can find independently-moving shadows." Numbuh .2 made a final break through the wall of enraged operatives and retreated head down and ashamed but determined to the 2 x4 tech room. At least this way, he wouldn't have to explain this to Numbuh 0. And just maybe, he could say sorry..and then he'd have an excuse to avoid the operative who had been watching their every move, he just wasn't sure how long he'd been watching them.


	12. Time for learning!

A flock of pigeons scattered as Numbuh 0 headed back to the treehouse at a run. Finding Blurpleberry ice cream was important for sure, but that could wait as something terrible was going on at the treehouse, which could only be what the lack of joyous yelling indicated.

"Just alert me when Numbuh .99's out of the mission meeting." Numbuh .2 drearily said as he barricaded his part of Sector Z's shared room, hung a 'DO NAWT DISTORB', sign, ate a whole grilled cheese sandwich in only two bites, and buried himself in a mess of wires, glass, tubes, and plastic spare parts dug out KND communal spare parts for makin tech bin.. He felt guilty, and part of this self-imposed isolation from his teammates, who were all down on the lower levels, trying to do damage control, was him punishing himself for having jumped to conclusions. Besides, he couldn't concentrate unless he had quiet and space, and he didn't need Numbuh .1 and Numbuh .4 behind his back judging him while he worked on fixing what was largely his own mess.

Numbuh .3 was in the KND Training of New Inductees Room, on pacifying Numbuh 50 duty. This was the first time she had seen Numbuh 50, as she had not trained in Sector E, and she was kind of shocked.

"I already towd you we have 3-8 year old trainees with extwa special sensitivenesses that cry if they heaw loud noises!" chastised Numbuh 50 in a screamy outside voice. "I don't cawe what you were doing down there, it shouldn't have been right below the twaining room!"

"On behalf of Sector Z, I'm sorry,.." Numbuh .3 apologized, but blinked in confusion, trying to focus on anything but the other operative's small height. But she wasn't doung a very good job at that. "Uh, forgive me in advance for asking this, but how old are you?" She raised her eyebrows, noting that he couldn't say his r's as r all the time.

"I'm five going on six."

"Pardon my uh, insubordination, shouldn't the older kids be training the new Kids Next Door?" She braced for the five-year old's temper tantrum, even though she had showed the proper respect to an operative with a designated function she couldn't help sounding a little flippant..

But to her surprise, the much smaller operative only smiled.

"Thewe's things you can only see fwom thwee feet off the gwound. In fact, you awe not seeing me fwom up there. Join me down hewe," Numbuh 50 tapped on a 3+ up bright yellow chair which was meant for younger kids.

Numbuh .3 was taken aback by the wisdom of the five-year old. Of course, adults and teens were dumb and ignorant, but even among kids there was a lot of age-prejudice, and she was 11, which was practically an old fart in kid years! Ashley awkwardly sat down on the toddler chair, her knees up way above her waist and her arms dragging on the floor. The chair back reached only a third up her back.

"Our training in Sector Z was sure a lot different than this," Numbuh .3 tried to mask how totally discomfortable sitting in the toddler chair was and looked around the training room. "Where are all the targets? Where's your obstacle course?" she asked, totally incredulius.

There was a teddy, a bunny, actually, just a bunch of stuffed animals, crayons, and puzzles scattered around the totally wooden room.

"There's two methods to twaining, twaining the body and twaining the heart. Befowe the new Kids Next Door opewatives can fight adult tywanny, they have to be whole in theiw heart."

"I don't get it," answered Numbuh .3, frustrated with constantly needing to readjust in the chair too small for her and sliding out of it. She got back on the chair.

"We all have opewatives better than us, who we think awe cool and wanta be mowe like. Who do you wanta be more like?"

"Sector Z's the best team in the Kids Next Door. I don't want to be like anyone."

"You suuuure?"

"Well, yeah. Numbuh 0. Everyone wants to be like Numbuh 0. He's the greatest KND operative there ever was." Numbuh .3 frowned.

"Ahhah! You do look up to someone! And that makes you feel bad?"

"Not really. I know I'll never be like Numbuh 0, and so it's why I practice sword every day to be the best swordskid in the Kids Next Door."

"You've mastewed your desire, but most kids awen't like you. It hurts them that they're not like who they want to be. They learn to not like themself, just how they awe. Who awe you without youe sword skills?"

"I don't know..I never thought about it before.."

Numbuh 50 looked at the older operative with the helmet, battle-seasoned and confident, with a more wisdomfull deepness and intensity.

"At the end of the day, even if they dont learn cool skills or become a famous opewative, kids must be happy with themselves."

Numbuh .3's mouth dropped, as if his words hit too close.

"If you wish to ascend to a highew path of knowedge, take one of the plushies."

"Uh, I don't..no thanks." Numbuh .3, a little weirded out, stood up from the toddler chair.. "But well, at least you don't think we're traitors, Numbuh 50," responded Numbuh .3 relieved but also bitter. Numbuh 50 adjusted his makeshift helmet which had a piece of plastic he found in the dumpster for a visor. He didn't have any weapons.

"If you were villains, you would've attacked by now. And twaitor's totally the wrongest word. You can't betway what you weren't in to begin with. I mean, not you, but like the you like a grammatified way."

"Yeah, I get it Numbuh 50. And thanks. But Numbuh .99 doesn't think so," she sighed. Numbuh 50 picked up the pink plush bear, seeming to reach even greater levels of tranquility. He was totally Zen-ified.

"You haven't been in Sector E long, right?"

"Yeah, this is our like..first week here?"

"So you don't know what kinda cleat Numbuh .99 has around here."

"Cleat.? Oh, you mean clout!"

"Yeah yeah, that word! Numbuh .99, he was the right-hand kid of Numbuh 0, but Numbuh 0 decided early on there wouldn't be any hierarifics in Sector E."

"Yeah, that's weird to me. We've always had hierarifics in Sector Z, coming from America." Not that he would comment to Numbuh 0 about that. He was Numbuh 0 after all. Numbuh 50 cocked his head and smiled like Numbuh .3 was missing the point.

"Yknow what's weirder? When Numbuh 0 said no hiierarifics, he abolished both leader role and right-hand kid role..and ya know whaat?" he stood on tiptoe to whisper in her ear. Numbuh .3 obliged and bent down.

"What?"

"Numbuh .99 was really maaaaaad," Numbuh 50 whispered. His breath smelled awful.

"Where's Numbuh 0 anyway? He's been gone two days.."

"Blurpleberry ice cream questing. Following a map that was delivered right to the base of tge tweehouse. This was befowe Numbuh .99 accused you of being twaitors."

Numbuh .3's brown eyes widened, stunned.

"If you ask me...Numbuh .99 nevew got over it...but what do I know? I'm onwy five yeaws old."

Numbuh 50 went off singing 'twinkle twinkle little star', leaving Numbuh .3 alone to ponder this.


	13. The Secret of

A series of light and urgent, but not panicked, thuds as Numbuh .3 took the steps up. The steps ran parallel to the slide that went from the middle of the tree to basement level. She weighed regrouping with the rest of Sector Z against the option of finding Numbuh .99 and confronting him, regardless if he had declared them traitors or not. She was pretty sure he hadn't yet-otherwise the entire rest of the KND would be after them by now. So she went past the big hangout room, which was where she had split up with Numbuhs .5, .4, and .1 after leaving the secret training room. She passed by operative room floor 1, not bothering to stop by their room, since she figured Numbuh .2 was still working there.

She passed by operative room floors 2, 3, and 4, the Peanut Butter n' Jelly Resevoir, the Potato Chip Reserves, and the Sour Gummy Worm Storage Chamber. She got to Operative room floor 5 and didn't take the next flight of steps, instead searching the floor and reading the painted squiggly numbuhs on the doors.

"Numbuhs .90, .91, and .92..." she went to the door across "Numbuhs .97, .98, and .99- here we go!" She went right through the door, but the room was deserted except for a dusty Yipper card sticking out from under the bed. So she kept circling the floor. "Nothing about a meeting room.."

She found a door marked Broom clozet. "Hm..."

She pushed the door open. "A broom clozet with no brooms," she remarked. She saw Numbuh .99 standing at the edge of the room, holding a walkie-talkie.

"Numbuh 0 has just entered the treehouse. On my way to intercept him before he can ameliorate the situation for the Kids Next Door. Oh, yes, I agree, sir..."

"Wow, so even your scrappy British accent is phony.." Numbuh .3 commented with disillusionment in her voice.

"Excuse me sir. I have to take care of some business that just came up." Numbuh .99 clicked off his walkie-talkie. Numbuh .3 noted it was a serious-looking walkie-talkie with gray paint. "Well, Numbuh 3. What brings you here?"

"It's Numbuh .point 3," she corrected firmly. Numbuh .99 was indiffetent. "Who were you talking to, Numbuh .99?"

"None of your business, child."

"Why're you calling me a child, when you're a child, too!" she pointed at him emphatically. His demeanor was cold.

"And that's what I despise about the Kids Next Door. You're like the Lost Flan in that bedtime story Peter Flan."

"Uh, I'm a kid, not flan! Flan is so like, ew!"

"Doesn't matter," Numbuh .99 shook his head slowly, shutting his eyes in irritation. "The point is every child has to grow up. It's the way of the world. And this organization is the numberrr one obstacle to growing up."

"Wow, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" jeered Numbuh .3, cupping her hands around her mouth and swaying from side to side in mockery. "Wonder what the adults are giving you to be so totally uncool." She leaned back with one hand on her hip and waved a hand at him dismissingly.

Numbuh .99 held out a green piece of paper with a picture of an old man on it. "Huh, what's that?"

"It's money. Never mind, you're a child, you would never understand...until you grow up "

"Well that's not gonna happen, buddy!" Numbuh .3 raised her umbrella, shifting her legs into a fighting stance. "Even when I reach 13, I'll still be a kid! We all will!"

"Really?" asked Numbuh .99 with cold amusement. "Now as we speak, the top most adult-like scientists are working on decomissioning technology."

"Decomissionment technology? Why would you need technology to kick a kid out of the Kids Next Door?" Numbuh .3 crossed her arms, the umbrella hanging down by her side, still in a fighting stance.

"Oh, decomissioning isn't simply kicking out. The scientists are working on a device that will trigger a full memory wipe..to erase any and all memories of being in the Kids Next Door, to be implemented once the operative reaches 13 years of age. And that, dear child is how everyone_grows_up."

"What..." Numbuh .3 breathed, nearly dropping her umbrella. Her brown eyes were sad. "Were you always an adult at heart, Numbuh .99?" And then narrowed in anger. "Or are you just bitter that Numbuh 0 abolished hieraifics in Sector E?"

"The correct pronunciation is hierarCHY...and that's not a story for a child like you." Numbuh .99 approached her, pulling out the boards held together by two nails. "But, because you were just so dilligent in uncovering our plans, I will tell you this. My adult and teen partners were the ones who gave Numbuh 0 the fake map to find the Blurpleberry Ice Cream. "Now if you excuse me, I must continue my role as Numbuh 0's confidante. Needless to say, you're no longer in danger of being accused of being traitors. But if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you and your team will be the first children on which we test the Decomissioning Technology. Good day, Ashley."

And with that, Numbuh .99, one of the original particpants in Numbuh 0's rebellion, sauntered out the broom closet door. Numbuh .3 was left there, her breathing tight, strained, and tense, her fists balled tight by her sides, her umbrella dragging on the floor, sweat collecting in her Z-badge helmet and rolling down her face, her gaze fixed on the wall where Numbuh .99 had been.

She clenched her fist so hard her nails dug sharply into her hand.

"We'll see about that, honorary adult. We, Sector Z, will save the Kids Next Door, whatever it takes!" she vowed to herself, loudly, boldly, upholding her duty as a Kids Next Door operative. "We will save childhood..." she said to herself quieter, as it wasn't just any other mission this time. Numbuh .99 and his adult and teen allies threatened to destroy the essence of every kid in the Kids Next Door, everything that was cool and funtastic. Threatened to destroy her essence. She didn't like that, nit one bit. And though she was the cool-headed and impartial one in a fight, in a debate, in an argument, when she was threatened she would not back down. Numbuh .9o had picked the wrong kid to mess with.


	14. Dirty laundry

"So that's what really happebed? asked an operative with a cold. "Gradfadder's evil sob escaped by turbing ibto a liddle shadow ball?"

"Yup, that's what Numbuh .2 said, and what Numbuh 42 said, and what Numbuh 756 said. They all saw it, 'cuz they can see good," answered an operative with goofy huge glasses with huge nosepads.

"So how come one of the bigger kids don't tell us to go after him?" asked another operative wearing a paper bag over his head with holes cut in the bag so he could see.

"'Cause he's a shadow, duh! We're in a forest! Besides, i think we ran him off good. If he comes back again, our Sector'll be the first to run him out again! I want chocolate milk!"

The traitor had escaped further wrath of their food-slinging weapons, the Kids Next Door operatives had largely dispersed to their rooms, or like this Sector, chasing down the Milk Men through Sector E's neighborhood to make chocolate milk, building tech like fart-propelled biplanes, or even playing frisbee under the shade of the Treehouse..But Numbuh 0's solid, familiar tread attracted every operative who happened to be doing something on the middle floor of the treehouse, and they stopped what they were doing to greet him.

"'Ey Numbuh 0's back!"

"Where ya been at, Numbuh 0?"

"I was searching for th' elusive Blurpleberry Ice Cream, but I heard yellin' an' not happy yellin' either!" Numbuh 0 replied, his expression full of concern.

"Oh Numbuh 0, you won't believe what happened!" a smaller operative hopped up and down. "There was this shad-"

"What Numbuh 822 is trying to say-" interjected Numbuh .99. "We had a situation but thanks to th' indomifying determination of the Kids Next Door, th' danger's gone!" interjected Numbuh .99. Right everyone?"

"Uh yeah..but-!" the smaller operative was disappointed that he wasn't able to finish talking.

"Numbuh 0 must be real tired after all that Blurpleberry-searchin'! Why doncha give im some space!" Numbuh .99 suggested.

"Now Numbuh .99, give th' other Kids Next Door a chance to say what happened-."

"You're right, Numbuh 0. Go on, Numbuh 16-"

"ALERT! The villains are attacking the Treehouse! Repeat, the villains are attacking the treehouse! Kids Next Door, to your positions!" yelled the KND operative on lookout, perched on the highest branch fifty feet off the ground.

"You heard Numbuh 999! Let's go, all 'a us!" Numbuh 0 raised his wooden sword. He hadn't told anyone, but he was quire fond of Numbuh 999, and just hearing her rally the KND to battle increased his inspirization.

As the operatives grabbed their homemade squirt guns and apple bombs, they scrambled to all fronts of the treehouse, usually covering a window if not out on the branches themselves, balancing at twenty or forty feet above ground. As Numbuh .3 joined the fray, she glimpsed Numbuh .99 smirking at her as he followed Numbuh 0.

But she didn't leave with the rest who were near the windows or outside the treehouse. Instead she waited for the crowd to thin out and a straggler to run by, made sure no one else was coming down the hall, and then she turned back.

Numbuh .2 heard a rapid knock at his door.

"Numbuh .2, let's go!"

"I haven't finished my Shadow Scanner yet!" Numbuh .2 reacted with unusual petulance. Numbuh .4 rolled his eyes, flipped over the "DO NOT DISTORB" sign, and rapped on the door again.

"It'll have to wait, villains are right outside the treehouse!"

Numbuh .2 stashed his unfinished invention under the bed, picked up his billiard stick, and followed Numbuh .4 out the door.

"Cut all the pulleys, pull up the ladders!" called out the KND operatives. One of the teen villains fell off the ladder she was climbing and landed in the bushes in a flurry of leaves.

"Get them..get them all!" ordered Mr. Intern, who was flanked by both Ice Cream Tweens and Ice Cream Teens, and they were firing single shots of chocolate and strawberry swirl, providing an opening for the better climbers to scale the tree itself and directly fight the enemy kids.

Numbuh 0 blocked a teen coming at him with a wrench. His wooden sword bent over the metal, but his sword was heavy and the wrench was light.

"Where's Ben?" he asked Numbuh .99, who he was back to back with. Their enemies weren't being particularly challenging, and so Numbuh 0 carried on a conversation with Numbuh .99 while he was fighting off the teenagers.

"Don' know, he just ran outta th' treehouse while you were gone. Maybe he went t' Grandfather. But you're right, he wont betray us t' Grandfather."

"Oww!" howled a defeated teen as Numbuh .99 smacked him in the ankle with his boards connected by a nail.

"I should go look for im..."

"He's made his choice, Numbuh 0. The Kids Next Door is not for him."

Numbuh .5 was oblivious to the battle. She had gotten stuck watching her favorite Yipper episode where Yipper meets his match against the mixed martial arts fighter kitten. Numbuh .3 showed up in the doorway of the TV and Game room.

"Hey Numbuh .5, you're not coming to the battle?"

"Huh, what battle?"

"Uh, the battle going on right now on the treehouse. You didn't hear the announcement?"

"Nope. Oh wait really?! Lers go then!" she dropped the remote and the batteries popped out. "Whoops!"

"Im sitting this one out."

"Uh, ok? Are you feeling alright, amiga?" Numbuh .5 looked over her shoulder on the couch..

"Yeah, kinda..you know where the Map of the Treehouse of Coolness is?"

"Uh, no. "

"But you're sector leader! All sector leaders get access to the map of the treehouse!" Numbih .3 walked up to her on the couch.

"Actually numbuh .99 restricted sector leaders' access, so.."

"How many KND members over the age of 13 do we have? You have a master roster, right?"

"Actually, I do for that-" the base of the treehouse rocked. A screaming villain flew past the window and landed tree canopy. Numbuh .3 shut the door. Not many stay after they hit 13..but we do have some..some been here lonnnng time, they were old enough to not work in Grandfather's factories but they proved their kid credentials and been in the KND ever since. Yeah, so there's about seven members like that, I think."

"They're in trouble, we gotta warn them. Where's the master roster?"

"In the inside pocket of my other dress...in the Clean-o-matic."

"..."

"5 minutes to cleanifying," Numbuh .3 read the screen. Dirty pants, smelly socks, and moldy shirts fell in piles around Numbuh .3 as Numbuh .5 rummaged through the veritable mountain of Kids Next Door dirty laundry.

"You havent even told me what you need to see the master roster for!" grumbled Numbuh .5 as she searched for her other dress.

"We're too close to the window.."

"Ughhh! Fine, keep me your sector leader in suspense!" Jelly guns sprayed a villain off of the treehouse. He got caught in the tire swing, which two operatives spun until the adult barfed.

"4 minutes to cleanifying-"

"Quit with the countdown, you're making it worse!" Numbuh .5 popped out of the clothes mountain.

The Clean-o-matic started to fill with laundry soap and water just as Numbuh .5 emerged from the mountain in triumph. "I FOUND IT!" She tossed the crumpled paper to Numbuh .3. She took it, smoothed out the crinkles, and began to read..

"Hm..their ages are listed here. Numbuh 81...13. Numbuh 59...17. Numbuh 574...22. .Numbuh 665...15 Numbuh 412...whoa! 92. And Numbuh 00000000000000003..14. Ok, you go look for Numbuhs 81, 59, 665, I look for Numbuh 412 and Numbuh 000000003, and we meet back here at 13:00 o' clock."

"What's going on? When're ya going to tell me why they're in trouble or we gotta warn them!"

"No time to explain!" Numbuh .3 took off out of the TV and Game room, Numbuh .5 confused, as the battle of KND vs. Adults and allies continued to rage on and outside the Treehouse.


	15. Test Runs

Numbuh .5 was trying to figure what the heck was going through Numbuh .3's mind. Numbuh .5 didn't even know about kids that were older than 12 in the KND! And now she was supposed to find three of them? Not even a helpful hint? Ashley was always of few words and kind of on the enigmifatic side, but this was beyond dumb!

Not one to deduce and stuff like that, Numbuh .5 went charging all over the mid-levels of the treehouse looking for-oh yeah, she DID scribble down in apple green crayon which operatives she was looking for...the first of who was Numbuh 81! She looked under pillows and dug through stacks of Yipper cards that looked like a kid or non-villain adult could be under, she searched in and under the cream soda barrels and in all the beanbag chairs and the ball jungle. When she couldn't find anyone she headed for the upper levels. She passed the fierce battle outside on her way up.

"We should've ended this minutes ago!" stressed Numbuh .99, as if anxious to get back inside.

"Stay focused, Numbuh .99!" encouraged Numbuh 0, keeping the adult and teen hordes back as kid and adult vehicles clashed in the tree canopy. The fart-powered biplane expelled stinky bursts of gas low overhead to cheering KND members but was weighted down by adults with jetpacks trying to latch on and ground the odorous plane.

Numbuh .5 hurried up her search. It'd be harder to look for the operatives that Numbuh .3 said were in danger or whatever once the rest of KND had come back. She took the steps two at a time, her big brown boots clomping on the wooden steps until she reached the PB & J reserves, stopped there to get a snack, and went to the floor where some of the operative rooms were. Still munching the sandwich, jelly spilling on her olive green dress, she dragged her hand across doors while reading all the numbuhs on the door until she found what she was searching for.

"Numbuhs 81, 59, 574, 665, 412, 000000000003! Ei, they all share the same room! No WONDER I haven't heard of 'em...cuz if they shared a room with all the other NORMAL operatives, all the kids would be talkin' about how there's a few teens and adults in the Kids Next Door!" Numbuh .5 took of her cap and scratched her head, making her wild brown haor wilder. "Uh, why didn't Numbuh .99 accuse THEM of being traitors, then?" Numbuh .5 fumed loudly to herself, offended. "You'd think THEY'D be the first ones to kick out of a KIDS' organization-" Numbuh .5 opened the door, which came up against a bit of resistance. She rammed the door open, sweeping a pile of plastic against the wall with loud clacks "Ei, what the heck, there's no floor!" Numbuh .5 waded with her big arms out to her sides through a sea of plastic connectable blocks, mini toy cars, space-themed action figures and toy robots, model airplanes, and movie posters...and of course plenty of Yipper cards...like mountains of them. There was a wall and all the papers were tossed around-it looks like someone was here..

"Numbuh .5," addressed a voice behind her as the sea of plastic clacked.

"AHH!" Numbuh .5 slammed her fist behind her, catching it on a plastic handle. "Ai ai! Have a knuckle sandwich, evil adults-Oh, it's just you, Numbuh .3!"

"Looks like we were searching for the same place.." Numbuh .3 answered as she cleared a path through the sea of toys with a few arcs of her umbrella. "They live in one room. Look at all this.." breathed Numbuh .3 in a tone of amazement. "Relics from a past era.." She lifted a crude posterboard off the wall bearing bright balloon letters. 'Sixth Age of the Kids Next Door...this must be way before Grandfather...Black-and-white photos..pictures of their Sector," she enumerated, taking the papers off the walls and flipping through them. Until taking a photo of the Sixth Age operatives giving each other noogies revealed an out-of-place hole in the wall.

"Someone broke into their room!" Numbuh .5 gasped, and without hesitation climbed through the hole in the wall. "Look, it leads somewhere!" Numbuh .3 tried climbing in, but was too big. Numbuh .5 punched out a section of the wood, which was just light wood, not the heavy tree wood.

"Good going Numbuh .5!" Numbuh .3 followed her through the expanded hole. It was a tunnel with no light, and not bringing a flashlight along, they felt their way through the inside of the wall.

They crawled forward for what seemed like miles and suddenly there was no floor under them, and they dropped down into a dimly lit room, landing on top of each other behind an aluminum pillar. Their 'oof!' wasn't too loud though, because the other occupants of the room didn't hear them.

"Numbuh .98, what's going on?! Why am I here?!"

"We should be asking you the same question, Numbuh 81."

"Numbuh 81!" mouthed Numbuh .5. She was ready to charge out from behind the pillar, but Numbuh .3 held her back.

"Lets listen in, first. Maybe he'll say where the others are," whispered Numbuh .3.

"It says on th' master roster that you're 13," Numbuh .98 had an English accent, like a tough one and not a funny one. "That means you're not a kid anymore. You're a teenager and belong with th' teenagers."

"But I AM a Kids Next Door!" protested the kid. Numbuhs .3 and .5 could only hear theor voices, since they couldn't see around the pillar. But Numbuh .98 clearly was in charge of the situation. Gis voice was mocking.

"Dont you wanna grow up? Find love? Be a adult eventually?"

"No, I dont!" screamed Numbuh 81 in a high small voice.

"Sorry mate! Numbuh .99 says you don't GET a choice."

"What are you doing..?"

"Decomissionin Process, test 1. 'Cuz you're over th' age of 13, mininutes after you're Decommissioned, you'll grow to your teenage height. Your hormones, that was suppressed by bein' a kid,'ll finally kick in and you'll be a teen, undistinguishable from all th' other teens!" Numbuhs . 3 and .5 could tell that Numbuh 81 was grinning.

"NOOOOO!" screamed Numbuh 81, crying heavily. Numbuh .3's eyes narrowed with anger on behalf of the distressed operative. "I've got to get free." the sound of straining against straps filled the room.."O've got to tell Numbuh 0...he stands up for ALL kids, no matter what age you are!" Numbuh 81 hollered.

"Well, you're e a young teen so maybe he'd be sympathetic..but the other members of your sector...Numbuhs 59, 574, 412, the oldest in your sector...17, 22, 29..Where do we draw the line? What's next, would we let senior citizens in the Kids Next Door? Offer Grandfather membership?"

"Grandfather's evil, and wants to destroy what makes us kids kids! Don't ever lump my Sector in with that old evil guy!" growled Numbuh 81.

"What MAKES US kids and what MADE YOU a kid! You're disrupting the natural order-adults decree that kids shall be teenagers when they turn 13, and teenagers shall be adults when they turn 18."

"YOU'RE disrupting the natural order! A kid becomes a teen when he feels like it! Which for me, is NEVER!" Numbuh 81's voice rang out. Numbuh .3 closed her fist and smiled in determination.

Numbuh .98 was unmoved.

"Say goodbye to the Kids Next Door!" Numbuh .98 announced, but Numbub .5 couldn't wait anymore and tackled Numbuh .98 to the ground. Numbuh .3 followed her out and for the first time saw Numbuh 81, clearly a kid with his short arms and legs and thin body, hooked up to a weird hulking contraption protruding from the metal ceiling. There was a big button on the contraption which had not been pressed.

"Forcing a kid to become a teen..thats straight-up villain stuff!" Numbuh .5 yelled in Numbuh .98's face. She had him pinned to the floor with her weight.

"And you, Sector Z, call yourselves th' greatest Sector of th' Seventh Age..while WE'RE th' ones who rebelled against Grandfather, all you do is fight weak villains, go on tiny unsignificant missions and drink too much cream soda!" Numbuh .98's face twisted in proud rage. "WE are the ones doin the serious fighting to LIBERATE kids! If we didn't cull the KND, then Sixth Agers would FLOOD the KND! Theyd be makin' all the decisions for REAL kids! Theyd take over th' Kids Next Door!" Numbuh .98 shrieked, eyes bulging.

Numbuh .3 had listened throughout. She looked at Numbuh .98 sadly, like at a hero who had fallen. "Where's the other over-13 kids you captured!" she took a step forward and held her unbrella point overlr Numbuh .5 at his neck.

"Think im tellin' you, you traitors callin those old people kids?!"

"Ok, we'll just destroy the Decomissioning Device," Numbuh .3 raised her umbrella at the contraption.

"Idiots! This button is just for show! The process is on a timet and should start right about..."

"AAAHHHHHHH!" Numbuh 81 was surrounded by light as he was zapped, he squirmed under the straps, both eyes wide and pupils dilated.

"..Now!"

He stopped shaking. Numbuh .5 got off of Numbuh 81 and Numbuh .3 alao ran to Numbub 81's side. They never had met formally, but he was a fellow Kids Next Door.

"Numbuh 59, Numbuh 59?"

"Huh..who? What am I doing in children's clothes? How do I even fit them still? Im 13. I better go get ready for the prom!" Numbuh 81 undid the straps, looked for the exit, and found a door leadimg outside the treehouse. Numbuhs .3 and .5 stared in speechless shock. Angry, Numbuh .3 grabbed Numbuh .98 and strapped him to the device, leaving him there as they both rushed out after Numbuh 81.

But Numbuh .3 stopped at the exit, unable to ignore what Numbuh .98's words.

"They're ALL on a timer! You can't stop destiny! Decomissioning's th' future of the Kids Next Door! Hahahahahaaaa!" Numbuh .98 threw his head back, laughing triumphantly. Disgusted, she exited the room, catching up with Numbuh .5. "And this is just th' beginnin'! Right as we're talkin' now, our best scientists're workin' on a database! Soon all it'll take to join the KND is DNA! And if we can put it in..."

"They can take it out...and kick anyone out." Numbuh .3 got what the deranged Numbuh .98 was hinting at. She stopped in her tracks, eyes widening and what she faintly but still definitely heard. On the surface it sounded like a good idea..remove operatives who had betrayed the KND...but if Numbuh .99 and his purist faction were in charge of the technology it was really obvious they'd use the tech to kick out operatives they didn't like. This was even worse than the Decomissioning device, t he exustence of which was bad and scary enough.

After a few second's hesitation, thinking if she shoukd go back and demand what Numbuh .98 knew about when this new technology was goingbto be ready, she shelved what she had learned for now and ran ahead to catch up with Numbuh .5.

Numbuh .2 and Numbuh .4 were in the middle of fighting way up high on one of the upper branches. Super Young Adult Woman and Daring Young Adult Man were attacking Numbuh .2 and Numbuh .4, who jumped and ducked simultaneously with incredible smoothness and skill. But Super Young Adult Woman hit Numbuh .2 with a stun spray.

"I can't move!" panicked Numbuh .2. Numbuh .4 was trying to hold off Daring Young Adult Man, trying to knock him off balance with his electrified boxing gloves.

"Hold on, Sector Z! Numbuh 574's here to help!" swung in Numbuh 574 on a rope of saltwater taffy, wearing a striped plastic helmet, wearing yellow shorts, a green and white wide-striped t-shirt, and armed with a powder. "This Destun Dust'll do the trick!" He dusted Numbuh .2 with the powder and Numbuh .2 started moving again, clocking Young Adult Woman with his billiard stick.

"We'll get you yeeeeet!"

"Thanks, Numbuh 574!" thanked Numbuh .2.

"All in a day's work as a Kids Next Door-aiiieeeee!" Numbuh 574 grabbed his plastic-helmeted head with both hands.

"Numbuh 574?"

"Whaaa? What's 74? What th' heck am I doin' around all these little kids..why am I only four feet tall? I gotta find myself a job."

"What..what just happened?" Numbuh .4 tilted his own helmeted head in confusion.

Numbuhs.2 and .4 were unsatisfied with Numbuh 574 just up and leaving the battle like that, so they followed Numbuh 574. He wasn't halfway down the tree when his legs started getting longer. He was able to drop down to the ground from a higher height than they could. His breathing became lower.

"Why're you kids following me?" his voice dropped really low.

"Ahhhhhhh!" the two Sector Z operatives screamed in terror and climbed back up the tree as fast as they could, as Numbuh 574, now well above five feet, trudged away from the treehouse, ignoring the kids vs. adult battle still rocking the treehouse.

-'

Numbuh .1 downed a foamy root beer float. He also had decided not to participate in the battle. He was also the only Sector Z operative to be friends with someone outside his sector. He wasn't aloof like Numbuh .3 and Numbuh .2, not focused on being nice and friendly with one or two people at a time, and not busy like Numbuh .5. He made friends easily..every Kids Next Door member, as long as they were cool, was a potential friend.

"Go fish, Numbuh 412."

Numbuh 412 began to draw a card from the deck, but his hand began to shake.

"Numbuh 412?" Numbuh .1 raised his aggressive voice with concern, standing up and planting hos gloved hands on the plastic green table.

"Somethings up..with my head..ughhhhhh...! ...what am I doing playing this silly cards game with you?"

"Uh, duh! It's cause you love Go Fish!" Numbuh .2 answered, annoyed at Numbuh 412's sudden unwillingness to continue playing Go Fish.

"But I'm 29...I should be playing poker..." insisyed Numbuh 412.

"29?!" Numbuh .1 spat out his root beer onto Numbuh 412.

"Ugh! That's disgusting kid!-" Numbuh 412 had planned to leave, but the root beer hardened and trapped him where he was. Numbuh .3 and Numbuh .5 ran by and then skidded, and backed up back into the Game room where Numbuh .1 was. Numbuhs .5 and .3 suddenly were waving their arms and gesturing flailingly and explaining things at the same time.

" Numbuh 81...got tall..his voice got all funny and weird...!

"Can't...unsee..Numbuh .1, you look traumaticized too! What's wrong? Did you see-"

"The villains have been defeated!" announced Numbuh .99 over the intercom.

"What we did?" Numbuh .3 asked, suddenly going out of her way to be vague and careful with her words.

Numbuh .1 raised a blonde eyebrow. "My Go Fish buddy..he just all of a sudden forgot who he is..he forgot we always play Go Fish..and he called me a 'disgusting kid' and said he's 29!"

"You know one of the-" she whisper-spoke. "...overage operatives and didn't know it? But I guess it isn't THAT weird...all the other overage operatives don't look any different from the other kids,"

"Overage operatives?! What are you talking about and why are you whisperong?!"

"So you witnessed it too..." Numbuh .3 interjected, green eyes intensely staring. "Ours became an older teen before our very eyes...what happened to this kid?"

"Encased in root beer," replied Numbuh .1 "what do you mean became an older teen?! Will someone please get me up to speed?" Numbuh .1 was getting frustrated.

"That means he cant get away right now," Numbuh .2 calculated. "I think we better take him to a KND scientist for analysis," he said in a hushed voice to Numbuh .3.

"Glad we're same page. And Numbuh .1...we'll fill you in on our way to the lab."

In the lab, away from the returning operatives, they could speak in an unhushed voice again, and soon they all knew what Numbuh .3 and Numbuh .5 had discovered. They met up with KND's scientist and handed over Numbuh 412 to him. In little time, the root beer-encased Numbuh 412 sat in a special high chair, hooked up to another contraption, this time sitting on the brightly-painted floor. A fat KND scientist with red crazy hair in a white labcoat stood examining the monitor.

"No use..I just can't jog his memories..." declared Numbuh Extra-Small sadly. "This is very powerful amnesia-inducing technology, which once activated, also causes the body of the operative to forget that it's young. First the mind ages..and then the body. The good news is this affected operative hasn't grown up like the others you observed though..his will to stay a kid is strong. But who knows how long that will last?"

"Can you figure out what's the power source of the Decomissioning Device?" asked Numbuh .5. She handed to him a piece of the device.

"When did you swipe that?" asked Numbuh .3.

"Right on our way out," Numbuh .5 grinned.

Numbuh Extra-Small analyzed the componemt. While waiting, Numbuh .1 paced, looking over at Numbuh 412. Part of the root beer had been cut so they could see his eyes..and those eyes were blank and serious. Numbuh 412 was adult in all but body. Numbuh Extra-Small cleared his throat loudly and with lots of pghlem. He picked hos nose and called their attention back to the monitor.

"I have finished the analyzifying! The Decomissioning Device seems to be controlled by a master chip..these initial subjects were subject to the discharge of energy by the master chip. But in all likelihood, future operatives who undergo the Decommissioming Process will have to be placed in the machine."

"Why's that?"

"Because you stole the master chip."

"Can't we just smash the master chip and destroy the Decommissioning Device?" Numbuh .3 held her hands out, distressed.

"You really feel strong about this, Ashley," observed Numbuh .2, taking on that overly calm tone indicating that someone was overreacting.

Numbuh .3 was getting even more agitated and actually got in David's face. He leaned backwards, taken aback by his teammate's aggressive outburst. "Darn right I do! Constance is 9, Bruce is 10, Lenny is 10, and you're 8."

"Wait, how old are yuu Ashley?" asked Lenny, tilting his helmet to scratch under it with his boxing glove.

"Im 11!" Numbuh .3 answered in a panic. "If Numbuh .99, .98, and whatever other operatives who are in on it have their way, Not only wont I be in the Kids Next Door anymore, but every menory of it will be gone! I won't recognize you...8 years of fighting adult tyranny together, gone!" she slammed the wall with her umbrella, causing Lenny to jump. Her eyes were tired and her expression was dark, filled with preteen anger. "Let's destroy the chip now!" Numbuh .3 resolved, without thinking.

Lenny piped up, gesturing gently but firm.

"But from what you told us, Numbuh .99, .98, and whoever else is with them have a lot of power in the KND...you said he said we don't have to worry about being called traitors anymore, but he kinda implied he could accuse us if we told the rest of the KND. You saw how he turned every operative against one." Numbuh .4 shuddered. "Just think of what'll Numbuh .99 do if we expose the Decommissioning conspiridication? We've got to be sneaky...let them normalize the Decommissioning Technology. Make them think they're unopposed. And then...David-" he slid behind David and patted him on both shoulders. "-will secretly come up with a Decommissioming blocker..before your 13th birthday Ashley, we'll save you somehow. And anyone else who's scheduled for Decommissioning!"

Numbuh .2 put his head in his hands.

"I just dont know if its even possible to build it...Memory safeguarding...neurons and things like that...I'm not well versed in it..."

"Try! Please. For me," begged Numbuh .3, clasping her hands together.

David sighed and nodded.

"What's going to happen to Numbuh 412?" asked Numbuh .1.

"Well if we let him go we'll have another adult on our hands," answered Numbuh Extra-Small. "So I will freeze him in ice cream so he won't have to eat or drink to survive..with your permission."

"Motion to have Numbuh 412 frozen in ice cream! I vote yes!" Numbuh .5 announced..

"Yes," the other four Sector Z operatives stated.

"So that's it. Until we make our move, everything's normal. We go on missions as normal, we help other kids as normal. Because who are we?"

"Sector Z!"


	16. Reuniting

The Earth did its predictable year flight around the Sun. Mercury beat Earth of course, while slower planets lagged behind Earth. On Mercury, Numbuh .3 would have reached 12 and then 13 way beforr that day arrived on Earth. But adults, teens and kids only counted Earth birthdays. Birthdays determined age. Age determined whether one was classified as kid, teen, or adult.

Durung that year, Mr. Intern, who had been promoted to Mr. Paid Intern, gave up fighting the combined forces of Sector E, Sector Z. And other minor Sectors, and escaped to Sector Z. Sector E now free of publicly-declared villains again, Sector Z also returned to Sector Z, leaving both friends and enemies at Sector E behind.

That year, a number of operatives celebrated their 13th birthday. They were captured publicly .94, .95, .96, .97. 98, and officially decomissioned. A new organization-wide rule then was instated that banned all new members above the age of 13. One Sector in America, Sector TE,, accepted a 16-year old who still carried around a Rainbow Monkey and sucked her thumb. Sector E found out and not only was the 16-year old captured-they were also calling it arrest now, and it bore a resemblance to adult-style arresting with all its ceremony, public importance, and use of restraints-but Sector TE was disbanded..their treehouse was flooded with genetically-enhanced termites, effectively leaving them without a home. Sector TE was banned from rebuillding and their Numbuhs on the master roster were crossed off. Numbuh .98, who had since gotten free, became the KND technologucal ambassador, holding Decommissioning orientations to prepare all under-13s for being 13 and also a thirty minute seminar on the in-progress database that would track membership by DNA.

Many of the 11 and 12 year old operatives appealed to Numbuh 0, but he thought it was for the best. He also thought the in-progress DNA-reading database would keep the KND safer, so the KND would know who was in the KND so that if members were in danger or just needed help, other members could access the database and would be able to help them faster.

Finding Sector E not so hospitable anymore, the 11 and 12 year olds too returned to their own sectors, even though from what happened to Sector TE, they knew they weren't protected.

Sector Z sang happy birthday to Numbub .3, in their treehouse-which had an interesting design. More ceramic tile than wood, looked more like a suburban house in a tree than a treehouse proper. They didn't have a cake, but they had cookies drizzled in strawberry frosting, but she was only mildly happy about turning 12.

"The organization's changed a lot, huh?" asked Numbuh .4, drinking some soda and burping lightly.

"Yeah, but it's still fun to be in the KND, right? Right guys?" Numbuh .5 looked around to her teammates expectantly.

"Yeah Numbuh .5."

Numbuh .3 finished her birthday cookie and stood in front of the height chart, crumbs still on her mouth.

"You grew an inch," measured Numbuh .2 marking off the new height with a colored pencil.

"Yipee..." Numbuh .3 was glum."What happened to the crayon?"

"Oh, um, I used up the last crayon, so I had to get colored pencils.."I'm sorry, Numbuh .3!"

Numbuh .3 looked gloomy. Suddenly there was many scattered knocks on the door. "Sector Z!" screamed some younger operatives."You're back from your lunar mission!"

"Pre-lunar mission-" Numbuh .2 corrected, a bit frustrated. One of his goals was to be the first kid to land on the Moon. "Our ship stalled and we had to get to Earth."

"Doesn't matter, you're our heroes! The cliosest to get to the Blurpleberry Ice Cream except for Numbuh 0, the discoverers of a sunken ship in the Bay of Collard Greens! Yayyy,Sector Z!"

"You've saved countless kids from getting lost in the Dark Woods and from turning into were-puppies!"

"From getting beaten up by the Ice Cream Teens or even getting spanked!"

"From getting us out of trees if we clombed them and can't get vack down!"

"The legendariest Sector in all of KND! Can..we get your autograph?"

Sector Z signed obligingly, and the five and six-year olds raised their autograph books high in joy and excitement. That made Numbuh .3 feel a little better, and she smiled. They had gone on many dangerous and even life-threatening missions-space flight was literally out of this world and battling the supernatural was scary for them, too.. and they were known and loved by all operatives, no matter what country they were from. They were signing so many autographs it was hard to go on missions, and there were still so many places to explore, and even more mundane adult tyranny to be fought, like saving more non-Kids Next Door members from washing the dishes. It was rewarding to save a fellow Kids Next Door, but even more so to save a kid that wasn't in the KND.

"Guess what, guys?" Numbuh .2 beamed.

"What?"

"I finished the Decomissioning Blocker."

"You did?! Oh, David!" Numbuh .3 hugged the taller boy, who was not as freakishly taller than her now since she had grown an inch.

"I don't so hugs, remember..? Aw..fine..." he kind of lightly touched his hands to her back, feeling her black sweatshirt and his tall thin frame getting squashed by Numbuh .3's intensely crushing hug

"That means we return to Sector Z!" Numbuh .5 declared as she ran around. "Duhn duhn duhn duhn!" she sang a dramatic tune and imitated an airplane. "Whooosh!"

"Oh, can we take the Near-Moon rocket?" asked Numbuh .4, folding his hands in anticipation.

"Sector Z's back, Numbuh .99!" reported Numbuh .93, holding a pair of binoculars.

"See to it they dont make it to the Sector E treehouse.."

Numbuh .99 was happy with himself. He now had a new title, even better than right-hand kid..Head of Decommissioning, approved by Numbuh 0 himself. Naturally, he was impatient for the KND central database to be fully functional, it was near completion. But knowing Sector Z, they no doubt had figured out a way to override Decomissioning and destroy everything he and Numbuh 0's team had worked for. Why else would they come back to Sector E?

A rock projectile grazed the hull of the ship.

"We're being hit!"

"Shield repairs?!"

He had it all planned out. It would only take them five minutes to recover from the crash and get back to the treehouse. He was looking forward to collecting their DNA with all the other members and then before their very eyes, remove it from the system!

"They hit the repair mechanism..."

"Adults or teens?"

"Neither, it's coming from the treehouse."

The rocket crashed in the forest.

"Ughhh.." Sector Z piled out of the smoking rocket.

"Great, guess we gotta walk there. Stupid Head of Decommissioning..this must be his doing!"

Numbuh .2 kept his cool as he regularly did and climbed up the rocket, checking the damage. The fire then suddenly and abruptly extinguished.

"Thats...strange..."

"What?"

"The fire went out.."

"Thats good, right?" Numbuh .5 asked.

"Not sure..." Numbuh .2 picked up his since-completed scanner. The field of view was on a gray scale. He then spotted a black spot in between the trees. Numbuh .2 dropped his scanner and pointed, voice soft. "I..i think I found him..."

"Who?"

"Hello, Sector Z," said a small nasal voice. The black dot returned to kid shape, with thin arms and legs and big shoes. His hair covered with the black shadow looked like spiky tufts. His mouth wasn't visible. He opened his eyes, yellow and angular. "You didn't forget about me after all.."

"Ben..where've you been?"

"Here. Right here. You have no idea..how hard it was to resist their recruiting tactics...Ever since I was chased away, the villains have asked me to join them..."

"We're sorry Ben, we would've looked for you...we were trying to..."

"Right...i believe you..!" Ben, still a shadow, answered with a cheerful voice.

"Come here, Numbuh 2!" Numbuh .4 closed in for a hug. A rope closed on his pants leg and hoisted him high.

"I refused, every time. But I've gotten used to being by myself."

"Ben, get David down right now!" demanded Numbuh .3. She stepped forward and fell into a pit. Numbuh .5 tried to tackle him. An invisible energy field gripped her. He psychically carried her into the pit and dropped her there.

"Ben, come on..don't do this..." said Numbuh .1.

Ben's yellow eyes narrowed, and threw a concussive fireball at Numbuh .1. He was knocked back into a tree, and wasn't burned. Ben picked up some rope he had on the forest floor, and began tying up the other kids.

Numbuh .99 checked his serious black watch.

"Attention Kids Next Door!" Announced Numbuh .93. "The KND Code Module is from this day forth, operational! Get in line so your DNA can be entered in the Code Module! The scientist will give instructions how!"

Numbuh .99 continued to check his watch as hundreds of kids gathered around the small device of buttons and switches that a KND scientist was proudly standing next to.

"Where is Sector Z? They should have been here by now..!" wondered Numbuh .99, as Numbuh 0 stepped up to the Code Module to insert his booger. He felt gratitude and pride to be a kid at such a moment, of promise, progress, and wonder.

The computer beeped and whirred, reading 'Analyzing DNA..." Then a 'ding' sound. "Congrstulations! You're an official Kids Next Door operative!". The other kids cheered and scrambled to put their boogers into the new device so they too could be official.


	17. A Fix to the Problem of Decommissioning

Numbuhs .5, .2, .1. .4. and .3 were all tied up tightly sitting on a raised platform on a craggy floor. On the floor lots of robots whizzed around.

"Metal...fluid motion, with none of the wires visible...there's none of your new' designs." There was a bit of sadness in Numbuh .2's voice.

"Well, when one spends so much time by themselves they change."

"You mean the shadow?"

"I always had this in me..." Ben stated. "I'm first and foremost, Grandfather's son."

"But aren't you a kid firster and foremoster?" appealed Numbuh .3, rememberring what the New Inductee Trainer Numbuh 50 had taught her.

Ben's yellow eyes widened.

And then narrowed with bitterness and disillusionified.

"Adults aren't the only ones who can be evil. Besides, I'm both a kid AND a monster, so no, I'm not quite sure which one I am firster and foremoster."

"Ben, you don't have to do this!" Numbuh .1 yelled, and hit the platfom with the heels of his brown boots while struggling against the rope. It felt toght like he was being crushed by a snake's xoils.

"Ben, we would've looked for you.." Numbuh .2 apologized. "We just got..really sidetracked..and my technical expertise wasn't where it needed to be back then..but I finished the shadow scanner to locate you...and it worked...but i couldnt finish the Decommission Blocker...whatever this machine does, can't it wait until after I finish the Decomission Blocker?"

"What about, I'll stay here. You let them go so David can prevent others from being Decommissioned!"

"Decommissioned?" Ben repeated, stepping back and holding his arms down and away from his sides.

"Menories of Kids Next Door are erased. And then the decomissioned operative grows up like any other kid."

"This'll happen to all of you..and Monty eventually?" At last, panic in the shadow's voice.

"What numbuh is Monty?!" demanded Numbuh .5, brash and straightforward even when captured and held in this weird pastel color device.

"I don't wanna reveal his codename .but I'm not in the Kids Next Door anymore...and soon..you wont be, either, but not because of some Decommissioning process," he scoffed. "However,, your unfinished Decommissioning Blocker might just be what I need...as my machine needs a selective memory fragmenter to be operational"

"Great genius, you told kid monster about your 2 x4 tech..." sighrd Numbuh .4... "But once I reverse your device, my realignment of your neurons will be complete. So like I was saying, it doesnt matter if I reveal his codename. Monty is my brother, Numbuh 0."

"Numbuh 0's your brother? He is also Grandfather's son?"

"Then why would you care about him being Decommissioned when he turns 13?" questioned Numbuh .3.

"Decomissioning sounds pretty evil..but not evil enough..because the problem isn't the Kids Nezt Door, it's that it's always about the Kids Next Door for anyone in the Kids Next adoor. It's always fighting, saving the world from adult tyranny, not enough time for the nicer things in life..not enough time for tea parties, dinners...not enough time for friends. So, I thought I'd test my Delightfulization Chamber on my five bestest friends in the whole world..." Ben gestured widely with both small arms.

"Delightfulization Chamber?! Yucck!" Numbuh .5 made a barfing noise.

Ben levitated the Decomissioning Blocker, partially reversed its polarity, and installed it in his machine, which hummed to life.

There..for 15 perfect minutes, you'll be my friends. Ny adorable, agreeable friends who want to be my friends too."

"Stop, Ben! We'll be your friends! again! Just not like this...!"

Ben threw the switch.

A blue light filled the tube. And the zapping began. He turned the power up. And up..and up. Suddenly a warning alarm sounded on the device.

"Overloading...? Huh?!"

The Delightfulization Chamber exploded, the force hurling shards of glass, live wires, and chunks of metal and plastic flew all over the room and into him, shredding his shadows and flinging him into the wall. The smoke cleared. The rope had turned to ribbons which the five kids untied were all in school uniforms and had combed hair, bows and hair ties, with a babyishbcolor scheme..

"Oh, Sector Z, you're just so cute and adorable-whaa? What happened to my voice? Hm..must be a side effect, gives you a cold or something.." Ben ignored it..

"Who is this Sector Z you speak of, Father?"

"Whatd you mean 'Father'? I'm Ben, your bestest friend and who you'll follow around for 15 whole minutes!"

"Surely it would be inappropriate to call you, Father, by your first name."

"Politeness level is off the charts..! Sector Z, come over here." Ben tested.

"Certainly, Father..."

"Obedience level is way more than expected! This is working better than I thought! I can't wait for Sector Z to change back so they can glare at me in contempt and marvel at my evilness."

But 15 minutes went by. Then 30 minutee went by.

"Sector Z, why arent you changing back...Sector Z? Uh-oh. I think..it might be..permanent! And what is going on with my voice. I'd better get a mirror, see if I can locate what booger the size of a small meteorite is stuck up my nose."

"We will get the mirror for you, Father," iffered the childre, and they fetched a mirror from the corner of the craggy room.

.Ben screamed.

"My face..it's long and pointy! My hair...is black...I have a funny ball on my neck..maybe that's why my voice is funny...my clothes...they dont fit!" His blue shorts were way too tight, his suspenders had popped lose, and his glasses barely covered his yellow eyes.

"We were going to suggest that you buy new clothes, Father."

Ben buried his head in his too-big hands, crying.

"The Delightfulization wasn't supposed to turn out this way. I'm a kid..I can't be an adult. You were supposed to be my friends!" His tears dried, and he stood up. "But if you can't be my friends...you'll be my children. My Delightful Children. And you, will assist me, Father, to RULE the WORLD!" Father engulfed himself in flames and then shadow as he laughed wickedly, the Delightful Children laughing as well.

A full year later, Sector Z still hadn't been found and was declared Missing. But the good news was, Numbuh .3 was never Decommissioned. And as the years passed, as Father devastated and terrorized the Kids Next Door, neither Numbuhs .5, .4 .3, .2, or .1 were decomissioned. Father attempted to Delightfulize other operatives to multiply the number of evil kid villains with also the understanding that it would prevent Decommissioning. It would prevent the forgetting, and thus stop ageification.

He had noticed he hadn't even grown a bit of a beard during this year and realized the other side effect was that ageification was stopped in him too. He was frozen in this 20-30 year old form..and since it was permanent for his Delightful Children, he calculated it was permanent for him as well.

But most importantly, Sector Z continued to be kids, just not as part of the Kids Next Door. And Father, frozen in the body of an adult, had no more reason to try and not be evil, and unleashed all of his rage at the organization that had thrown him out.

Except for those five.

And no matter how...contentious their interactions got, Father never forgot that it was Sector Z who had taken him in. He didn't Delightfulize them to betray them, or because he no longer trusted them.. It was because he didn't want to lose them..because at his core, even with his terrifying supernatural powers, even with his command over villains the world over and his unquestioned evil, inside he was still only a scared eight-year old kid.


End file.
